Life As You Know It
by Sorrel
Summary: SG1 finds their long lost fourth stranded on an alien planet. But as it turns out, he's not stranded, nor particularly lost, and has no reason or desire to return to Earth. What's a Colonel to do, except stick around to change his mind? JackDaniel SLASH
1. Chapter 1

**Part One

* * *

**

Jack put on his sunglasses as soon as he stepped through the gate, to ward off the harsh glare of the sun. The gate platform rested in the middle of a circular clearing, about twenty feet across, surrounded by thick jungle vegetation on all sides.

"Well," he said, as soon as Carter and Teal'c had followed him through and the gate closed behind them. "At least it's a different kind of tree."

"Glad you're pleased, sir," Carter said, coming up beside him and staring with undisguised unhappiness at the muggy tangle of greenery. "See any sign of him yet?"

"Our instructions were to come through and wait for contact, Major Carter," Teal'c put in, from Jack's other side. "Considering our unfamiliarity with this location, and the denseness of the vegetation, it would be foolish to attempt to penetrate it without a guide."

"If he ever shows," Carter muttered. She was just bitchy 'cause she'd been pulled away from playing with her bike. Not like he'd interrupted anything important.

"I trust Skaara," he said. "If he said he was gonna be here, he'll be here with bells on."

"With bells on, O'Neill?" Teal'c inquired, one eyebrow raised. "That seems impractical."

"It's just a _saying,_" Jack muttered, even though he knew perfectly well that Teal'c was messing with him. Just because Teal'c talked the same as always, didn't mean that he hadn't picked up a thing or two about American slang.

Teal'c never got a chance to reply, because just then there was a slight rustling in the undergrowth that preceded the arrival of seven tanned young men, all dressed in Abydonian robes and carrying staff weapons that were pointed right at them. Skaara, in the lead, lowered his weapon when he spotted Jack, and a smile spread across his face. "Oneel!" he shouted, waving one slim, tattooed hand in greeting. "You have come!"

"You know it, Skaara," Jack said. Skaara came up to the foot of the steps, his wave turning into a crisp salute. Jack saluted back, and as they both dropped their hands he felt a matching smile spread across his own face.

God, he loved this kid.

Skaara turned around and called something to his men in his native language which caused them to lower their weapons and come forward, though caution was written across every line of their bodies. Skaara turned back to Jack for introductions. "Oneel, these are my men. Abasi and Amsu," he said, pointing to two similar-looking boys who were probably brothers, "Gyasi," a slender boy with a tattoo of a paw print on his cheek and vines curling away from the corner of his left eye, "Jahi," who stood quietly, at attention, a good soldier to the bone, "Madu," who had dreadlocks like Skaara's and a glint in his eye that said he was trouble, and finally, "Thabit," a hulking giant by Abydonian standards, with scars on his neck that looked like something with fangs had tried, and failed, to rip his throat out. Jack didn't want to tangle with him, but really, he didn't want to tangle with any of them. They were an able lot, that's for damn sure.

"Major Carter, Teal'c," Jack said, gesturing to his companions. "You've met before."

"So we have," Skaara said, and saluted them too, holding the position until Carter returned the gesture and Teal'c inclined his head in recognition. "It is good to be seeing you again, all of you."

"It's good to see you, too, Skaara," Jack said. "But- no offense- we kinda want to know _why_ we're here."

"The message did not say?" Skaara said, with some surprise.

"You didn't write it?"

"No, the commander wrote it, I only deliver it through the chaappa'ai. I speak Tau'ri, but my written? Not so good."

Interesting. A mysterious commander who could not only speak English, but could write it as well. Rarer than hen's teeth in this galaxy, which wasn't a surprise considering the relative rarity of English in the world at the time most of these people had been taken. That's what Daniel had always said, anyway.

"Well, the commander neglected to mention why he wanted us here, only that our presence was required to negotiate a potential alliance between our world and this one."

"Oh, of course," Skaara said. He smiled peacefully. "It is not with me that you must discuss such matters, Oneel. It is the commander."

"Right," Jack said. "In that case… Lead the way?"

* * *

It turned out to be not all that much of a walk. Skaara led them to another clearing, about half a mile away, that had a ring transporter. Skaara took two of his men, Gyasi and Thabit, and left the others to guard the transporter until their return. Jack applauded his choice- Thabit looked to be a mean bastard, right enough, and Gyasi, well, there was a look about him, like a wolf who'd found his chosen person, and wouldn't ever hesitate to bite on command. In Jack's experience, true loyalty was often more dangerous than Thabit's brand of toughness, and he was impressed as hell that Skaara inspired it in his men.

The rings took them into a courtyard, cool and shadowed by the high walls that surrounded it. Skaara went immediately to the ornately carved doorway to their left, jerking his head impatiently at them. Jack followed meekly enough, Carter and Teal'c flanking him, with Gyasi and Thabit on their heels.

Skaara led them through a maze of corridors, all made from an alien black stone that seemed to absorb light, rather than reflect it. There were no markings or art on the walls, not even a signpost for an unwary traveler, but Skaara didn't hesitate once, just navigated the twists and turns as if he'd lived here all his life. Jack admired his confidence, and hoped like hell that things didn't go very, very wrong, because if they did, he'd never be able to find his way back.

They finally came to a small room, decorated with only a long, low table and two plain wooden chairs where a man and a woman were sitting, waiting for them. They were both tall and thin, dressed in severe uniforms with a gun on each hip and swords slung across their backs. Both wore a medallion fastened at the center of their chests, a symbol of their rank, Jack guessed. The woman's was a horse, rearing against the pristine white of her uniform; the man wore black and a hawk in full flight, wings spread wide.

Both of them stood when they entered the room. "Greetings," the man said, his voice low and pleasant if slightly roughened, as if he had spent most of his life with his voice raised to carry across a battlefield. "I am Commander Sarth Attyn of Sinope; this is Commander Antiope of Paphos. Welcome to Themiscyra, honored guests." He pinned Jack with a startlingly intense look from soft-seeming brown eyes. "You are Colonel Jack O'Neill, representative of the Tau'ri?"

"Yep, that's me," Jack said amiably. The man spoke _excellent_ English, absolutely unaccented. He also looked like an average Joe, the kind of brown-hair brown-eyes guy you'd never notice on the street, except for his grave air and abstract sense of command. His very ordinariness made him dangerous. "This is Major Carter, and Teal'c. You're the one who sent us the invitation?"

The Commander inclined his head. "I was the one," he said. "I trust it was well-received?"

"Uh, yeah," Jack said. "About that. See, my superiors, they were pretty thrilled to receive it, yeah, but… We're not really sure why we're here."

"You have friends on this world, Colonel O'Neill," Commander Antiope said. Her voice was even rougher than Attyn's, but unlike her counterpart, she was absolutely stunning, with long blonde hair pulled away from her face in a tight braid and intelligent blue eyes in a fine-boned face. Jack had no doubt that she was every bit as competent with the weapons she carried as the man standing next to her.

Jack cast a grateful smile over his shoulder at Skaara. "Yeah, I know," he said, catching the white flash of Skaara's returning grin. "But that doesn't really tell me why you want Earth, of all the worlds out there, as an ally."

"As much as we value Captain Skaara's counsel, he was not the friend I was speaking of," Antiope said.

Captain, huh? Way cool, Skaara. "If ya don't mind me asking, then- who were you talking about?"

"You will see," Antiope said, and he could have sworn that the pair of them seemed amused. "We will take you to him now."

They turned and exited the room through another door, moving perfectly in step with one another. Jack didn't really have much of a choice but to follow, Teal'c and Carter behind him, Skaara and his men now bringing up the rear.

The trip was yet another long, twisty, convoluted path, and Jack was even more lost than before, which he hadn't previously believed possible. Carter stared suspiciously at the walls for a few blocks, and then got out her handheld scanner. There were a few positive-sounding beeps, and then she gave an excited yelp, hastily stifled when Attyn cast a curious glance over his shoulder at her.

"What is it?" Jack hissed at her, once the Commander was safely face-forward once more.

"Trinium!" she whispered back fiercely. "The metal in the walls? I though it looked odd, so I wanted to get a reading on it."

"And?" Jack demanded, impatient, barely remembering to keep his voice down.

"Pure, refined trinium!" she said.

"Whoa," he said. "There's got to be one hell of a mine on this planet, then?"

"Yes, sir," he said, and then they were at their destination, and couldn't talk anymore.

This room was as luxurious as the former had been empty. Flowers bloomed in all corners and thick green vines grew along carefully maintained trellises surrounding wide windows with a view of a wide, placid lake; there were window seats in every window, all filled with embroidered cushions. Bookshelves lined the walls and a large table dominated the room, surrounded by chairs and an ornately carved wooden throne at the head.

In the throne sat the most beautiful woman Jack had ever seen- and in his years, he'd seen quite a few. Long black curls tumbled over pale shoulders, brushed against spiral armbands made of the same black metal as the walls, teased across a mostly bared bodice and the most amazing breasts Jack had ever had the fortune to encounter. Her face was a perfect oval, with deep golden eyes made mysterious by thin lines of black and perfect red lips. She didn't wear a dress, just something that resembled a _very_ tight corset and leggings made of some sort of animal hide, tucked into knee-high boots, all the same perfect white as Commander Antiope's much more modest uniform. She wore the same rearing-horse medallion as the commander as a pendant on a fine golden chain around her neck. She carried a gun on each hip as well, and her clothing was less than royal, but Jack had not a single doubt in his heart that he was meeting the ruler of this world.

"Commanders," he said, making sure that his voice was perfectly even. "I could have sworn you said 'him.'"

The woman laughed, a low musical sound that rolled through the room like a fog. Carter was already smiling approvingly, which she did every single time she met a female leader, especially one who wore a weapon, but even Teal'c was enchanted by the sound, and it took a hell of a lot to impress the former First Prime of Apophis.

"I am not the one you are to meet," she said, her voice just as lovely as her laugh and the rest of her. "I have merely borrowed his seat while I wait for him. He is late for dinner."

"Ah," Jack said. Whatever. "You know, I still don't know who we're supposed to be meeting."

She blinked, her lovely lashes sweeping in a perfect semi-circle of confusion against her alabaster cheek. "Commander Attyn did not tell you?"

"I'm supposed to leave it a surprise for the Colonel," Attyn said, that same trace of amusement audible in his voice. The woman smiled in sudden understanding.

"Ah, that man," she said, waving one ringless hand. "Always his games. It is one of the things we love about him, is it not?"

"No," Jack said bluntly. "I have no idea who he is, but I'm not exactly having fun with this one." He returned the woman's measured stare without a flinch. "I'm not really a fan of surprises."

"No, you wouldn't be," she said thoughtfully, then shook her head. "Ah well, it is no matter. Soon he will be here, and all shall be revealed."

"Hopefully he'll get here sooner than later," Jack said.

"You always were impatient," came a voice from behind him. Jack froze, feeling his heart stop for a second in his chest, and when he could breathe again, he slowly pivoted on one foot to face the doorway.

Daniel stood there, dressed simply but richly in a short, sleeveless, tight-fitting tunic with a high round collar and leggings and boots in the same style as the mystery woman's, though his were pitch black. He wore the same spiral armbands, and the medallion around his neck was a hawk in full flight. He carried only one gun, but there was a long, wickedly curved dagger dangling from a sheath on his other hip, and Jack had always counted his brain as one of the greatest hidden weapons of the United States government, so he was probably just about as well-armed as anyone they'd met so far.

"Hello, Jack," he said, a beautiful smile spreading across his face. "It's been a while."

"Two years," Jack said, though lips that felt almost numb with shock. "Give or take."

"Oh my god, Daniel," Carter said apparently coming out of her own paralysis, and Daniel turned his smile to her, apparently still unaware of the power that smile held, how it stunned and awed everyone around him.

"Sam," he said gently, and she broke away from her place at Jack's side, flying across the distance between them, enveloping him in a bear hug. He laughed and hugged her back, and a glance sideways showed that both Skaara and the Commanders were grinning, but Jack didn't miss the way Skaara's two warriors had their hands on their staff weapons. Not everyone was comfortable with SG-1's presence- that or they were just that naturally protective of Daniel. Either option was equally likely, considering Daniel's ability to charm total strangers into friendship and loyalty- and their own ability to piss off the universe.

Teal'c was waiting when Carter finally released Daniel, inclining his head to a degree usually reserved for visiting dignitaries of very high rank. "Daniel Jackson," he said, his voice low and grave. "It is indeed good to see you again."

"Likewise," Daniel said. He nodded and stepped past them, brushing against the sleeve of Jack's uniform as he went.

The hair on the back of Jack's neck stood straight up.

Daniel made his way around the table to the woman's side. "Lyta," he said affectionately, kissing her cheek like she was any other woman instead of some untouchable goddess. She laughed and kissed him in return, winding her arm around his waist, and Daniel wrapped his around her shoulders before turning to face them again.

"Queen Hippolyta," he said, "May I present Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, and Teal'c."

"I am honored to meet you all," she said, bestowing a smile on them like a gift. "Daniel has told me many tales of your exploits together. I am looking forward to meeting with your further, once your negotiations with Daniel have begun."

Jack arched an eyebrow at Daniel, trying to quell the frantic thumping of his heart at seeing him, here, alive, after two years of nothing. "Negotiations with you?" he asked. "There something you wanna tell us, Danny-boy?" Not that he hadn't already guessed it himself. The uniform had pretty much given him away, but he wasn't sure that Carter had kept up with his line of thought, and it was possible that he was wrong.

Daniel cast a reproachful glance at Attyn, who was looked like he was trying very hard not to smile. "I'd think you could have warned them, Sarth."

"You wanted it to be a surprise," Attyn said, sounding for all the world as if he were as innocent as a newborn babe.

"Yes, but I'd think you could have at least- Oh, never mind, why the hell do I bother with you, anyway," Daniel cut himself off. Attyn's not-grin grew in force.

Daniel turned back to them, a rueful smile on his face. "Right, so, um, I'm kind of, well, in charge, around here. A little."

Jack stared at him. Oh yeah, Daniel sounded _real_ in-charge, right there. It was difficult to believe, uniform and apparent deference of high-ranking military aside.

Queen Hippolyta laughed and slapped Daniel's chest playfully. "Ah, Daniel, you are such a trial, sometimes. So modest. He is Minister," she explained to Jack. "To the Freedom Coalition, residing on this planet."

Jack looked back at Daniel. "Freedom Coalition?" he echoed.

"Don't blame me, I didn't name it," Daniel said irritably. "It's so… pretentious."

"Blame your charming partner, Daniel my love, she is the one who named it, as you well know. Though I think it perfectly fitting."

Daniel obviously didn't' agree with her. "Lyta," he said, gritting his teeth. "Go away."

She didn't seem offended, just smiled angelically at him and pressed another kiss to his cheek, sliding away and collecting her Commander Antiope before sauntering out of the room, tipping a wink at Jack as she went. Jack sort of wondered about Daniel, because if he had a women like that pressed up against him, he'd never, ever tell her to go away. Especially not if she was kissing on him and calling him "my love."

Then again, from the sound of things, Daniel already had someone. A partner sure as hell sounded like another word for "wife" to him. What was it with Daniel and alien women, anyway?

"I'll take my leave too, sir," Attyn said, his eyes already on the doorway.

Daniel waved a hand, resigned. "Go, bother your wife," he said, and Attyn shot him a grin before leaving. Jack assumed it was Commander Antiope he was married to, since that Queen didn't look like the sort to bow to any man. Then again, neither did her Commander.

Skaara turned to look at Daniel with equal eagerness, and Daniel sighed. "Yes, I know. Myrine is training the new recruits. Try not to annoy her too much- I'd hate to attend your funeral at such a young age."

Skaara grinned shamelessly at him. "She will see my charms yet, brother."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Daniel said. But he was grinning back. "Go on, get out of here."

Skaara bowed to him, and then turned and repeated the gesture to them. He said, "It is good seeing you again, Oneel," and took off, Gyasi and Thabit thoughtful enough to shut the door behind them as they followed him out.

It was good to know that Skaara was still the irresistible charmer he'd always been, even with his new responsibilities. Then again, it sounded as if this Myrine woman was resisting him pretty good. Well, he had faith in Skaara.

"So," Daniel said, sounding much more relaxed now that everyone else was gone and the door was closed. "How have you been?"

"Oh, so and so," Jack said, casually. "Bad days with the Goa'uld, good days without the Goa'uld, you know how it goes."

"I think I remember," Daniel said. "That's actually why I asked you here."

"What, straight to business, no hug? I'm hurt, Daniel. Really hurt."

"I got a hug, sir," Carter pointed out. Unnecessarily, in Jack's opinion.

"Noticed that," Jack said. "Not what I meant."

"I know what you meant," Daniel said, neatly cutting short what promised to be another famous O'Neill-Carter squabble. "And no, I didn't ask you here for old time's sake. We decided that Pontus was ready to enter into an alliance with another Goa'uld-resistant military force, and since we'd heard that Earth was still fighting back pretty hard, you were naturally the first choice."

"Oh, naturally," Jack muttered, and then said, loud enough for Daniel to hear, "Who's we?"

"Queen Hippolyta, Commanders Attyn and Antiope, the Council of Ten in Sinope, and myself," Daniel said.

"And Pontus is?"

"This world," Daniels said. "Well, technically just this island, but the tribes on the mainland have deliberately kept themselves primitive and isolated from extreme xenophobia, so we're pretty much the representative body on the planet."

"And you… serve that Queen?"

This was supposed to be Daniel's job, Jack thought with an all-too-familiar flash of irritation. Feeling out the opposition, trying to figure out the politics of a new world- it was what Daniel was supposed to do. It wasn't supposed to be Jack, with Daniel on the other side of that invisible line.

"Oh, no," Daniel said, startled. "She rules the Antianeira."

"Which are?"

"The word means 'those who fight like men,' so I guess you can figure out that all of her people are warriors. Er, well, the women are warriors- the men tend to be sort of house-husbands. They can fight, but they tend to stay at home while their wives and daughters are off hunting."

"My kind of world," Sam said with a big grin. When Jack shot her a Look, she rolled her eyes at him. "Sorry, sir, but we've landed in one too many worlds where women are oppressed for me not to enjoy it this time around."

"I have heard legends of tribes such as these in Tau'ri history," Teal'c interrupted. Poor guy had way too much practice at heading off their fights at the pass. "I believe most call them 'Amazons.'"

Jack was about to scoff- weren't those the chicks that cut off their breasts or something?- but Daniel was nodding. "The Goa'uld posing as the goddess Aphrodite took them from ancient Greece," he said. "Several hundred years ago, Queen Hippolyta- they're always called Hippolyta, it's a tradition thing- discovered that their goddess wasn't so divine after all, and staged and uprising. They won handily, not only kicked the goddess out but killed her and most of her army, and the remaining Jaffa were kept as bed-slaves until their symbiotes reached maturity, and then they were killed." Daniel shrugged. "They've been a free people ever since."

Jack turned to Teal'c, who looked like he was hard-pressed to hide a wince at the fate of Aphrodite's Jaffa. "Is any of this ringing a bell for you?" he asked.

"Indeed," Teal'c said. "Everyone knows the fate of Aphrodite, though none have been able to find the planet where she met her destruction. She was only a minor lord, but what land she did have was rich, and many more powerful Goa'uld wished to take her territory. Other planets were absorbed, but this one was never located."

"That's because there's a shield," Daniel said. "It covers the entire island. The System Lords would never know that anyone lives here."

"B-but that's amazing!" Carter stuttered. "My god, the power necessary to run a shield that size, it's just… well, amazing! Did the Antianeira develop this technology?" she asked Daniel. "Because if they did, that would be-"

"We get it, amazing," Jack muttered. God, he hated her technology-inspired mental orgasms.

"They didn't," Daniel said. "This city was here before Aphrodite ever discovered it. The people who built it moved somewhere else and seemed to take everything they could carry, but they left everything otherwise intact. When the Antianeira stumbled over it a century ago, the shield device was protecting the city alone; it was only by accident that they expanded it to cover the rest of the island."

"Of course!" Carter said. "I wondered how anyone could refine this much trinium; it seems like the entire city is made of it. Even the Goa'uld don't have that kind of ability. But the same alien race that created the shield could have easily developed mining to this degree."

"Yes," Daniel said. "The refineries have been dismantled, but the mines still exist, on the mainland. One or two of them seem to be tapped out, but there are three that are still viable. I figured it was something else you'd be happy to deal for."

"Oh, yeah," Carter said, before Jack could respond. "With that much trinium, we could-"

"Do all manner of exciting things, I'm sure," Jack said. All this idle chit-chat, like they were just _anyone_ here to trade with the might Minister Jackson, was pissing him off royally. "But you know, at the moment, that's just not my most pressing question." He glared at Daniel, the coldest Colonel Fuck You Very Much look he had. "What I want to know is what the _hell_ Daniel is doing here, two years after he deserted his unit offworld."

Carter's sharp "Sir!" and Teal'c's equally reproving "O'Neill," didn't make him feel guilty in the slightest, but the shocked widening of Daniel's eyes went a long way towards shaming him. "Is that what you really think, Jack?" Daniel said. He sounded _hurt,_ the bastard, as if he had any right. "Do you really think I could have done that?"

"Well, you've got yourself a pretty sweet setup here," Jack snarled, tramping down on the part of him that still cared what Daniel thought of him. "Leaving us in the lurch, that really worked out for you, huh?"

Daniel sighed and sat down for the first time since entering in the room, slumping down into the throne Hippolyta had been sitting in before. She'd made it clear that it wasn't hers, and the easy way Daniel settled into it made it equally clear just whose it was. Bastard.

"I was taken," he said conversationally. "While you were setting up camp and scouting the area, I went back for one last look at those ruins, you remember the ones. Got beamed right up into a UFO straight out of bad late-night TV, only guess what? This one was real."

"Uh," Jack said. He didn't say anything else.

"Turns out, they're the exploratory ships of a race called the Tsh'nra," Daniel said. "They don't really like going off their world, see, so to find out what's happening around the galaxy they send these ships out and scoop people up, and bring them back to their world for interrogation." He smiled tightly. "That's how I met Sarth, and Hippolyta. They'd both been taken. Sarth was military back on his world- the only survivor of a mission gone wrong, when they picked him up. Lyta had gotten separated from her hunting party on the mainland, so the shields didn't cover her. They only take the people that are alone, you see. The ones that they think no one else would want."

"Danny, I-" he said, but Daniel kept going, wouldn't let him apologize.

"We got lucky," he continued. "Sarth and I, we were chosen for the king's daughter. They can read minds, sort of- they call it Tasting- and we were to be her Tasted. When she delved into my memories, she realized that her ships had been seen on my world before, though no people had ever been brought back to be Tasted. She didn't have the same fear of the Outside that everyone else did, you see. She'd always wanted to go out and explore, and because of me, she found out that others had done it before her."

Only Daniel, Jack thought, could get into these sorts of situations. Only he could get kidnapped by curious aliens, and then befriend the only one in the place that would help him. It was like Fate loved Daniel as her personal game piece.

"She broke us out," Daniel said. "Sarth and I, and Hippolyta, who was her father's Tasted. She took one of their ships and brought Lyta here, first. Sarth didn't have anything to go home to, so he was glad to stay here."

"And what about you?" Carter said. Jack, for once, was glad to hear her talking. She asked the question that Jack hadn't been able to.

"Once I heard about the shield, I said that Pontus would make a perfect refugee camp," Daniel said. "I explained about the Goa'uld, how there's hundreds of them out there, still subjugating thousands of worlds. Hippolyta was sympathetic, but she didn't really know anything about it, and told me she wouldn't know where to start." Daniel shrugged. "So I agreed to stay."

"Why you, Daniel?" Jack asked. "There's a hundred other people who could have done it."

"Better than me, you mean?" Daniel asked bitterly.

"That wasn't what I meant," Jack said. He had no doubts that Daniel was a great leader. He respected people, and genuinely cared about them, and people followed him like little lost puppies as it was. The refugees probably fell at his feet to worship.

"No, I guess not," Daniel said. "It's true, though. I wasn't suited for this job, but Lyta trusted me, and Sarth was here, and _someone_ had to do it, and while there may be hundreds of other people, there was no one else _here._ So the job fell to me."

"You could have let us know," Carter said quietly. "Even if you weren't going to come home, you could have at least found a way to tell us that you were alive and well. And- and happy."

"I couldn't," Daniel said helplessly. "You don't understand. When it first started- God, Pontus was such a mess. Not everyone agreed with Hippolyta about the refugees, and there was such a huge culture clash, since most worlds we run into are male-dominated, not to _mention _nobody spoke Greek, and there was so much bickering and squabbling and problems. We finally realized that the only way to work things out was to separate everyone, so we built a second city way on the other side of the island, up on a remote plain, for the refugees, and the Antianeira stayed in the coastal city. By then everyone was sort of following me by default, so I couldn't really ask anyone else to lead because I was the only one that _everyone_ knew, and if I'd contacted Earth, well, you know what would have happened."

Jack would have liked to say that no, he didn't have an idea, but he couldn't. He knew how the government worked. "They would have stepped in," he said. "Taken it over."

"And I couldn't have that happen, don't you see?" Daniel appealed to both of them with big blue eyes. He always had been able to sucker anyone in with those eyes, even the most hard-bitten soldier. Even Jack. "It's only these last two months that everyone's agreed that we're a cohesive force, that even if Earth decides that they just have to step in, they won't be able to force the issue." He grinned fiercely, and Jack felt a little blinded. "We have an honest-to-God army here, Jack, and the most amazing blend of technologies. Unless the Stargate program has gone public since I've left, Earth is never going to take 'benevolent' control of my home."

It hit Jack then, just how completely they'd lost Daniel. Before today, the majority of the base had assumed that he'd deserted his unit, though he was officially listed as being missing in action. Jack had gotten pissed enough, over two years of no word, to start to agree with them, though he'd always said, out loud, that Daniel had probably been taken. Just like Daniel with Sha're, every single time he'd gone through the gate he'd looked for one particular face in the crowd. He'd never found him, but he'd never lost hope of finding him and bringing him home.

Now, though. Now it was crystal clear that Daniel wasn't ever going to be going home, because he already _was_ home, had said it himself with the kind of fierce pride Jack always used to use when he was talking about SG-1, back when Daniel was there and they were an actual team and not just three people working together. Jack was never going to be able to bring him back to Earth, was never going to go through the gate with him again, because not only had Daniel found his own unit, he was the freaking Minister, and Jack didn't care what Daniel said or thought, it was pretty freaking clear that he was King to those people, or something like it. A kind-hearted, near-sighted, extremely moralistic king, but still king.

Carter, of course, techno-whore that she was, completely missed the important part of Daniel's speech, and focused on the topic nearest and dearest to her mechanical little heart. "What sort of technologies, Daniel?"

"Well, Goa'uld, of course. We have a lot of their stuff, taken from various raids over the last six to eight months. We've picked up a few things from various different allies and grateful refugees. Healing chambers, stasis pods, repair drones, ultra-efficient fuel cells, a couple naquadah-powered cannons. We still have the original Tsh'nra ship, and we've been able to build two more using indigenous materials, but we haven't been able to engineer them to interface with human minds, since we don't have the telepathic capabilities of the Tsh'nra."

"I could take a look at it, if you want." That was Carter, ever helpful. And ever eager to get her hot little hands on some new toys.

Jack was more interested in some of the other things Daniel had mentioned. "Naquadah-powered cannons?" he asked. "Those'd be mighty damn useful if the Goa'uld ever came knocking on our door."

"We can discuss it later," Daniel said. "Though I can say with some assurance that if Sam can get the Tsh'nra ships working for us, we'll be willing to offer a hell of a lot."

"If you show me the hangar-" Carter started, but Daniel just held up a hand, laughing.

"Not so fast, Sam. Time enough for that later. Right now, everyone's waiting for us down in the dining hall."

"Dinner?" Jack said. The Queen had said something about it. And _that_ was the kind of conversation he could get behind. "I could eat."

"I as well," Teal'c said, probably to prevent Carter from whining about not getting to look at fancy new spaceships. She could get a little… over-enthusiastic.

"Alright then," Daniel said. "We'll just-"

He was interrupted by a slight beep. Jack looked around, trying to see where it had come from, but Daniel didn't look surprised, just reached down to tap the tightly-coiled end of the spiral armband on his left bicep. "Jackson."

"Daniel, dearest." Hippolyta's voice came out, clear as crystal, from somewhere in the coil of metal. "It looks like your lovely partner is home once again. Her ship was just spotted coming into orbit."

Daniel closed his eyes, and a quietly happy smile spread across his face. "Xyn," he said. He pronounced the name with an extended, buzzed "z" and a rolled long "i," Zzzzine. His voice, though, when he said it- partly shy, partly proud, and all the way happy, just like when he'd introduced Sha're as his wife for the very first time. This was a Daniel that Jack had only seen once before- this was Daniel In Love.

"Thank you, Lyta," he said. "We'll be right down."

He tapped off his communicator and turned to Sam, still quietly glowing. "Looks like you're going to see the hangar after all, Sam," he said. "And you can meet my partner, Xyn. She just got back from her latest scouting expedition."

"Xyn would be one of those… tushy people, the ones that kidnapped you? She's the one who got you out?"

"Yes," Daniel said. He stood up and walked over to them, stepping into a painted circle on the floor. "C'mere," he said, grabbing Jack's sleeve and pulling him in. Jack, out of surprise, stumbled straight into him, and was left shivering from the feel of Daniel's body pressed up against his for half a second before Daniel steadied him and he was standing on his own again.

Teal'c and Carter followed him into the circle, and Daniel pressed the knob of the coil on the right armband, activating the ring transporter and beaming them out.

The hangar was echoingly huge, though well-lit. The nearest three bays were filled by three disc-like ships that definitely looked like classic UFOs, and the next five were filled by Goa'uld Tel'taks, all of them looking like they were in perfect working order, with twelve Death Gliders stacked two deep in the next six bays, followed by an oversized one filled by a slightly scarred-looking Al'kesh bomber.

Daniel had been a very busy boy indeed. He hadn't mentioned that he'd stolen Goa'uld _ships_ along with ring transporters and staff weapons. Looked like their ragtag little refugee army wasn't so ragtag after all, if they'd managed to accomplish all this.

Daniel wasn't paying much attention to them, anyway. The moment the rings settled, he was running out of the circle and towards the nearest UFO, shouting a hello even as a door opened in the hull and a ladder descended to the ground.

Onto the ladder stepped a woman that was as beautiful as any that Jack had seen today, but definitely alien. She was tall, as tall as Daniel maybe, and reed-thin, with short-cropped black hair that bristled from her scalp and perfectly round eyes that were deep pools of black with tiny white pinpricks for pupils. Her skin was a delicate white-gray, and since she was dressed only in a band wrapped around her breasts and loose trousers with the usual knee-high boots, all made of the same died-black hide of Daniel's outfit, Jack could see faint lines of a darker gray radiating out from three points on her body, one between her eyes, one just above her breasts, and one where her navel would be, if she had one. The lines were pulsing slightly, like veins did if you watched them very closely- not that Jack had any great desire to look too closely at her vein-things. If they were actually veins. There was no guarantee she actually had blood. She did look kinda like a vampire, now that he thought about it.

"Xyn!" Daniel called, and she laughed delightedly before flinging herself down the ladder and into his arms.

"Daniel!" she said, with a slight emphasis on the last syllable, like a less accented version of how the Abydonians had always pronounced it. She hugged him back just as tightly as he was hugging her, and then, when he was letting her breathe again (did her kind even _need_ to breathe? Vampires didn't, after all) she pulled back just enough to kiss him on the mouth.

He laughed again, laughing into the kiss, joy distilled into that one sound, that one moment, and Jacked ached. This was the person that Daniel came home to, now, the person he talked to in the middle of the night when he couldn't sleep. This was Daniel's partner, his wife, his best friend- and Jack had been all around replaced. It hurt, more than Jack had expected, and he'd been braced for a lot.

Daniel pulled away from the light press of lips on lips, grinning like a fool, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, turning her around to face them. "Guys, this is Xyn," he said. "My partner. Xyn, this is Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, and Teal'c."

"I am so happy to meet you!" she said gaily. "I have seen much of you in Daniel, and heard so much of you in my travels." She smiled benevolently at Carter and Teal'c, though she seemed to be ignoring Jack. Fine by him; he didn't like her much anyway. "You are well-known in this galaxy, SG-1. The Tau'ri are called the Scourge of the Goa'uld by our shared enemy, and no names are cursed as yours are."

"Well, that's one kind of fame, I suppose," Jack said dubiously. "Scourge of the Goa'uld, though- I like that."

"You would," Carter muttered. Jack valiantly ignored her.

"We were just about to go down to dinner," Daniel told Xyn, ignoring the two of them. "You're coming with us, of course."

"I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," she said, staring adoringly into his eyes. Jack made a fake-gagging motion, taking care to hide his face behind Teal'c broad shoulder, but those alien eyes must be faster than he thought. Either that or she had x-ray vision or something, because she turned her head minutely to escape detection by Daniel and her face shifted into what was obviously her species version of a glare- her eyes narrowed to horizontal slits and her tiny white pupils expanded into sharp vertical lines.

Despite himself, Jack took a step back, but by the time Daniel twisted to see what she was looking at, she was smilingly pleasant once again and Jack had managed to hide his shock.

Her water ran deep, alright. And God knew Jack never trusted alien women, even if they were members of the Daniel Jackson Fan Club. Especially then, really. Most of those women tended to be the craziest.

"Alright, that's settled then," Daniel said, still looking a little puzzled as to what going on, but not pushing, for once in his life. "Lyta's waiting for us with a sizeable dinner, and then you three can head back to the SGC for further orders." It rankled, the way Daniel said it, like he was some dog who couldn't move without a command from his master, he knew that was just the way Daniel saw it, and he'd never liked it much when he was on SG-1, either.

"Right," Jack said. "It sounds like fun." He probably could have sounded less enthusiastic if he'd really tried, but it wasn't a sure thing. Daniel didn't seem to notice, anyway; too wrapped up in his freaky gray girlfriend.

They all trooped back to the ring platform and ended up back in the transport room that had been their first view of the city, when Skaara had brought them here yesterday. Daniel led the way down several twisting hallways and then down a gently spiraling staircase that spilled out into a smallish banquet hall. The walls were a dark wood paneling, with gauzy forest green drapes billowing over the open windows. Queen Hippolyta was already seated at the head, in another ornate wooden throne-like chair. Commander Antiope was seated to her left, with Attyn next to her and Skaara next to him. There was an empty throne-chair directly next to her, and then four plainer ones on the other side of the table, obviously intended for Daniel and the rest of them.

"Xyn, love, it's so good to see you again," Hippolyta said, and Xyn let go of Daniel long enough to go over and give the Queen a kiss of greeting- on the cheek, Jack noticed. Nothing like her intimate hello to Daniel.

"Lyta," Xyn said happily. "It has been too long."

"Well, you have been away touring the galaxy, dear, it's what happens when you're gone for a month at a time," Hippolyta pointed out, and Xyn just gave her a cheeky grin before settling into the plain chair at what would be Daniel's right hand. Leaving Jack to sit next to her, and Carter and Teal'c stretched down the rest of the table. Of-fucking-course.

Daniel settled down into his chair, not even appearing to notice the oddity of the fact that he was sitting on a fucking _throne_ to eat dinner, and gestured at the rest of them to sit as well. Jack did, reluctantly, since he didn't particularly want to sit next to Daniel's crazy alien girlfriend, but Carter settled next to him with alacrity, and Teal'c on her other side. Jack would rather have sat next to Teal'c, since Carter's inevitable technobabble was going to put him off his food, but this was a female-dominated society, half of it at least, so he didn't want to look like he was giving the only female on his team the shaft.

He looked up to see Xyn lean over the arm of her chair and steal a bite of food off Daniel's plate. Daniel smiled warmly at her in return, then turned to say something to Hippolyta. While he wasn't looking, Xyn sent him a smug look as she chewed her pilfered morsel.

On second thought, he wasn't very hungry after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two

* * *

**

"He though I was a deserter," Daniel muttered as he stepped out of the shower and roughly dried himself off. Even the thought of Jack's words got him boiling with rage, and made his guts ache with hurt, that Jack, of all people, would think that of him. Would believe it. "He thought I just… up and left them, wandered away so I could rule another planet. Asshole."

Xyn stared at him unblinking from her perch on the bathroom counter. "He is a fool, Daniel."

Daniel sighed and pulled on a pair of loose cotton pants. "No, he's not," he said. "I wish he was. It'd make it easier to forget about him. But one thing he's not is a fool." Jack was a hell of a lot of other things, though, things that Daniel didn't want to think about. Seeing him, gray-haired and irreverent as ever, had made Daniel's heart almost stop in his chest from sheer, incandescent joy. Right up until the moment that Jack called him a deserter and power-mongering bastard, right to his face.

Daniel had had his share of heartbreak, a lot of it since he'd joined the SGC. He didn't need any more, and he didn't need it from Jack.

At least Xyn was here, thank God. He didn't know how he'd have made it all the way through dinner if she hadn't been here, bolstering him with every touch, every press of her smaller, lithely dangerous body against his. She'd marked him as her own every time she'd reached out and taken a bite off his plate, daintily nibbled on his food, the food that she didn't _eat._ She'd stared straight at Jack as she'd done it, too, though she hadn't thought he'd noticed; Daniel didn't have any illusions that she knew how he felt about Jack, and how much her territorial behavior would bug him, and how much she'd enjoyed it. Jack had hurt him; she wanted to hurt him back as much as possible. No half-hearted scoldings on his part were going to halt her, so he just let her do her thing, and tried not to enjoy the irritated look on Jack's face too much.

He gave his short hair one last rub with the towel, swiped half-heartedly at the week-old stubble on his face before giving it up for lost. He'd been thinking about growing a beard again, anyway. Lyta cooed over him every time he did it, teasing him about how handsome it made him- and God knew it was easier to impress some of the headmen in Sinope, to whom a beard was the mark of a powerful man. He could always shave it back off if it started to bother him.

Evening ablutions finished, he held out a hand to Xyn. She hopped down from the counter and took his hand, the soft cotton fabric of her long shirt sliding up her thighs. She'd seen the image of Sarah wearing one of his t-shirts to bed and so loved the idea that she'd slept like this ever since. It was just as beautiful on her as her equally skin-baring ship suit. Then again, everything was beautiful on Xyn.

He let her pull him close and she pressed up against his side, purring low in her throat. She sounded just like an overgrown cat, and acted so much like one sometimes that he forgot she wasn't actually a mammal at all. "Don't be sad, Daniel," she said. "Forget them, if they upset you. There are those here who care for you."

"I know, Xyn," he said. "But I can't just… forget them. You, of all people, should know that."

"I know," she said sadly. She did know- she always did, when it was him. "I wish it were not so."

"Me, too," he said quietly, and she pressed harder against him, trying to comfort him. She rubbed her cheek against his; she loved the feel of his stubble scratching harmlessly against her durable skin, and he loved the extremely tactile affirmation of her affection. It felt good for both of them, and he appreciated her even more, that she did this for him now.

"I love you," he said spontaneously, hugging her tight. "I've never had a better day than the day I found you."

"I as well, Daniel," she said, and twisted around in his arms to press her lips to his.

It was always the same, every time she kissed him. All of her thoughts, memories, and emotions- they rushed right into him, a torrential waterfall of razor-sharp intelligence and insatiable curiosity and boundless affection. He'd asked her once, how he Tasted when she did this, but she hadn't been able to articulate it, beyond a rush of words describing his respect for the past, his endless need to know _more,_ his morality, his caring, his honor, his pain for all the people he'd lost. She'd left him blushing, and he'd never asked again, but it was comforting, knowing that there was at least one person in the entire galaxy who knew him all the way down to his soul, and loved him anyway.

She broke away from the kiss and just hugged him tightly to her smaller body, holding him with superior strength. He wrapped his arms around her as well, and they stood there for a long moment, pressed together, exchanging affection and comfort in the best way they knew how.

Eventually they broke apart, and Daniel led the way into his bedroom. It was ridiculously opulent, of course, even after he'd removed the worst of the decorations Lyta had insisted on, but it was comfortable, with the same huge windows and well-cushioned window seats that were in his council room, and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on every wall that Sarth and Skaara had conspired together to build for his first birthday on Pontus. Also, the bed was ridiculously large, which would be great for sex if he was getting any, but it was also pretty nice to see his favorite person in the entire _universe_ getting under the covers on the other side of it, and then rolling all the way across the wide expanse of the mattress to curl up against his back as he reached up to turn off the lamp.

"I love you, Daniel," she said, her breath mint-sweet and cool against the back of his neck, and he whispered back, "I love you too," in the dark.

* * *

"Alright, SG-1," General Hammond said, leaning back in his chair. "Impress me."

"Well, sir, what we have here looks like just about the perfect alliance," Jack said. If he was careful, he'd managed to hide just how unhappy he was about the whole thing, but the General was extremely perceptive. He'd probably pick up on it sooner or later. "They're offering technology from at least six different planets, including weapons and ships, and a fairly impressive supply of trinium, as well as a share of their offworld naquadah mining."

"And what would we have to give them to get all this?" the General asked.

"Military support, sir, and the minds of some of our best engineers. They've done a great job integrating all the different races into one society, but they've had more trouble with the technology. No one there has quite the brain of some of our SGC experts, not for that sort of thing anyway."

"And the military support?"

"They're anti-Goa'uld in the extreme. They have raiding teams that move in and cripple mother ships that are threatening them or any planet that they're evacuating, and they have the military support to finish the job. They'd like to know that they have another strong military ally offworld, however, and there was even talk of setting up a secondary SGC base on the island."

"Sounds just about perfect," the General said. "What's the catch?"

"No catch, sir," Jack said. "Yet."

"Ain't it always the way," the General said, shaking his head, and then turned to Carter. "Major Carter, what's your assessment?"

"Well, sir, I think this is just about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These people would be extremely effective allies, and that's not even counting the technology and mineral supplies that they could supply."

"And all they want is a little engineering work and some military backup," Hammond said. "This is the kind of deal I like to make. Alright, tell me about this place. You said that there's two separate governments?"

"Sort of," Carter said, before Jack could answer. "The island is called Pontus- it's about four hundred miles across, with a jungle-like forest down in the lowlands where the Stargate rests, a remote plain along the cliffs to the north, and a river bisecting the entire island."

Whoa. Jack had had no idea she'd even been paying attention to Daniel and Hippolyta's descriptions over dinner- Jack had mostly been focused on his food, and ignoring the way Xyn had scooted her chair around until she was leaning against Daniel's side and stayed there the entire meal, and how she kept stealing bits of food off his plate. He knew Daniel was taken, thanks. No need to be bitchy about it.

"The people that were transplanted there by the Goa'uld are a tribe of female warriors, called the Antianeiran- the Amazons of Greek legend. Their city is Paphos, located at the mouth of the Thermodon River along the one true beach on the island. Antianeiran farms stretch all the way up along the river, since the area surrounding the river's banks holds some pretty fertile farmland.

"The river flows from Lake Maeotis, which is near the foot of the cliffs bisecting the highland plains from the rest of the island. Between Lake Maeotis and the cliffs is the alien city they've named Themiscyra, which is the capitol city for the entire island and made of pure, refined trinium.

"There's a shield that covers the entire island and protects the occupants from detection, which makes it the ideal place for a refugee camp. The camp evolved into a city that they call Sinope, placed in the highland plain, with modified ring transporters that take them to their farms on the mainland. The hangar in Themiscyra has several Goa'uld ships, which they use to collect the harvest in the fall."

"Sinope is governed by the Council of Ten, with one representative from each of the ten most populous races in the city," Jack said. This part, he had been paying attention to. "They report the Minister, who is in charge of the oh-so-charmingly named Freedom Coalition, which is the combination of the civilian enterprises in Sinope, and the civilian army housed in Themiscyra. The army is the domain of Commander Sarth Attyn, who technically reports to the Minister, though if you ask me there's not much actual reporting going on there. It's a very loose chain of command, sir, but it seems to work."

"The Antianeirans are under the rule of Queen Hippolyta," Carter said. Jack generously let her have this one, since she seemed to admire the Amazons so much. Ball-busting feminist that she was. "She controls both the military and the civilians very directly, with a small ruling council of her choosing in Paphos, and her younger sister Commander Antiope in charge of the military."

"All that means, sir," Jack put in, "is that yes, there are technically two governments, but Themiscyra is the capitol city for both, and they work very closely together. All decisions that affect all of Pontus, such as anti-Goa'uld operations, are made jointly by the Queen and the Minister."

"Fascinating," General Hammond said. "And this system works? There's no strife between the two groups?"

"Some minor squabbles, according to the Minister, and there was some real trouble at first, but the separation of cities and farmland has eliminated most of the problems, and everyone hates the Goa'uld, sir."

"The universal language," the General said, almost to himself. Then he shook himself out of it, turned, and pinned Teal'c with his most penetrating stare.

"Teal'c," he said. "Would you care to explain to me what Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter are leaving out of their report?"

Jack winced. Oh yeah, General Hammond was a perceptive one, alright.

"I would," Teal'c said serenely. He was _enjoying_ this, inscrutable Jaffa bastard. No one else would have noticed, but Jack could see past the stony look and into the smirk that lurked just beneath the surface. "We have located Daniel Jackson, General Hammond."

The General sat straight upright in his chair. "What?" he said. "He's on this planet?"

"Indeed. He is, in fact, the Minister."

The General sat back, his face falling into heavy, thoughtful lines. "This could be a problem," he said slowly. "The Pentagon isn't going to like the idea of negotiating with one of our own runaway personnel."

"It's not quite like we'd thought, sir," Jack said. He'd screwed this one up with Daniel; no way was he going to hesitate to defend him when he wasn't here to defend himself. Not this time. "He was taken from the planet where he disappeared, by a race of aliens that study human minds to discover what's going on in the galaxy around them. Daniel managed to convince the alien he was taken to, not only to rescue himself, but also two other prisoners, and once escaped, the alien, named Xyn, remains an ally to their people and to Daniel in particular, supply valuable technology and even more valuable information about the movements of the System Lords and location of Goa'uld strongholds."

"And of course, she won't be anywhere near as willing to deal with anyone but Dr. Jackson," the General said. Jack nodded- it was the truth, as far as it went. He had no idea if Xyn would be willing to deal with Earth directly, but he didn't have to ask her to know that she would take it _very_ personally if the SGC took it upon themselves to take Daniel back to Earth. He didn't even know if they _could_ take Daniel back to Earth, if she had anything to say about it. And she would. "The other prisoners, the ones that Daniel helped to rescue- who were they? Anyone important?"

"Commander Sarth Attyn, sir," Jack said. "And Queen Hippolyta."

"Of course they were," Hammond said heavily. "Well, our boy has himself one hell of a bargaining position, I'll say that for him." He sighed. "I doubt even the gentlemen at the Pentagon will want to risk an alliance as potentially lucrative as this one to recover one of our wayward citizens." He nodded at them all. "I'll contact the President to get authorization, but unless I get a negative, which I very much doubt will happen, you all should consider yourselves authorized to negotiate with the governments of Pontus for technology, naquadah, and trinium."

"Thank you, sir," Jack said, and beat a hasty retreat before Hammond could ask him how he was doing. He wasn't doing fine at all, thankyouverymuch, but that didn't mean he needed to _talk_ about it, and certainly not with his superior officer.

Teal'c managed to corner him in the locker room, though, thus negating any vague hope for a peaceful- and silent- escape. Carter was long gone, thank God, though she didn't exactly press him into talking about his feelings anymore. They'd done enough of that a year ago, and Jack saw no reason to revisit the entire painful experience just because they'd found Daniel again. Maybe _especially_ now that they'd found Daniel again- all things considered.

Teal'c, however, had negotiated too many inter-team squabbles over the last year to hesitate where angels fear to tread in the Jack O'Neill psyche. Jack was most definitely _not_ relieved- but he was, maybe, a little less unhappy about it as his less-than-welcoming glare would indicate.

"O'Neill," Teal'c said gravely. "Are you not happy to have found Daniel Jackson?"

Not quite the question he'd been expected. "Oh, I'm happy," he said, realizing as he said it just how _unhappy_ he sounded. Teal'c waited patiently, and Jack, just like he always did, caved like sugar in the rain. "It's just that it's gonna be complicated, you know? Like the general said, the Pentagon isn't going to be happy about Daniel being in charge over there." Jack thought about the extremely capable Queen Hippolyta. "Partially in charge."

"Would your leaders not be happy at the rise in status of one of their own?" Teal'c asked. "Would they not be grateful for the alliance being offered, where none would otherwise exist?"

"You'd think so, huh?" Jack said. "But no. It's like the whole mess with Hanson, five years or so ago. We don't have any right to take control of other worlds."

"The two situations are not the same," Teal'c pointed out. "Hanson was exploiting the natives of that world through the same methods of the Goa'uld, for his own personal gain. Daniel Jackson has created a peaceful refuge for the victims of the Goa'uld, and is fighting them to great effect."

"Yeah, but the guys upstairs are gonna see it the same," Jack said. "And they're not going to be happy."

"But Daniel Jackson said that he refused to contact us for fear that your leaders would take control of his world," Teal'c said.

"Yep."

"And you yourself agreed with his motives, O'Neill."

"I wouldn't go that far," Jack protested. When Teal'c just regarded him patiently, Jack sighed and said, "Yeah, I did kinda. It was a legitimate fear."

"Then why would your leaders see this as a problem?" Teal'c said reasonably.

"Because they're a _government,_" Jack said. "They're hypocritical. It's their nature."

Teal'c nodded wisely, as if this explained everything. Then again, he had been the First Prime to the whacko king for years. He probably knew all about hypocrisy.

"General Hammond said that it would not be enough to prevent negotiations from occurring," Teal'c said. "Do you think this is correct?"

Jack thought about it for a minute. "Yeah, probably," he said. "They're offering us a lot of things that we really need. Daniel sure knew which buttons to push there."

"Indeed, his time at the SGC gives him an ample advantage on a bargaining table," Teal'c said.

"And that's the real reason the higher-ups have a problem with it," Jack said. "He knows the way we operate, so he can predict almost every move we make. Plus he's made sure to offer all the stuff we really want, while keeping his requirements light- so we need them way more than they need us. He's holding all the cards, and that's gonna piss a lot of people off. It's a bad way to bargain, for us."

"I do not think that Daniel Jackson will take advantage of us, O'Neill," Teal'c said, a hint of censure in his tone.

"Me either, but they don't know that. So they're gonna hesitate a hell of a lot about the alliance."

"But you believe that they will eventually accede to the greater need," Teal'c said.

"Yeah, I do. They don't really have a choice. And Daniel knows it."

Teal'c looked at him, a slight smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Daniel Jackson is wise indeed," he said. "I am looking forward to seeing him once again."

"As long as we get the go-ahead," Jack reminded him, but he couldn't really doubt that it would happen. Daniel had made sure of it.

"Indeed," Teal'c said.

There was a long moment of silence. "I'm looking forward to it, too," Jack confessed. "I've missed him."

"I as well," Teal'c said. "He was a very close friend."

"He's got new friends now," Jack said, trying to clamp down on the bitterness. He wasn't entirely sure he succeeded.

"I believe that Daniel Jackson still values our friendship a very great deal," Teal'c said. "He was very pleased to see us today."

"Yeah, well," Jack said. "If we get the go-ahead tomorrow, he might end up regretting inviting us."

"I do not believe that will happen," Teal'c said. "He missed us as well. He will be happy to see us, for as long as we can stay." He stood up, and dipped his head in that weird greeting/farewell/acknowledgement thing he did. "And now I must retire to my room for kelnorim, to save my strength for tomorrow."

"Don't get your hopes up," Jack warned. Teal'c arched an eyebrow at him.

"You yourself said that you believe your leaders will accede to the need for alliance," Teal'c said. "I trust you, and so choose to believe no less." And then he left.

It wasn't a simple as Teal'c made it sound, though. The Pentagon might not give the authorization. It wouldn't be the first time the guys in charge would cut off their own nose just to spite their face.

He hoped it worked out, though. Not just because they needed this alliance- needed the mineral supplies and tech that Daniel and his ragtag world could supply. He hoped it worked out because if it didn't, he wouldn't be able to see Daniel again, and the thought was just… intolerable.

He knew that he wasn't going to sleep well tonight. And when he did sleep, he'd be dreaming of Daniel.

It wouldn't be the first time.

* * *

Daniel woke up to the smell of coffee and an empty bed.

He wasn't quite the layabout he'd been pre-kidnapping, but all the responsibilities in the world weren't going to convince him to voluntarily rise with the sun. Xyn, though, like all of the Tsh'nra, was utterly incapable of remaining inside and asleep when the sun was up, so she was always gone when he woke up. Fine by him- she always brought in a steaming cup of coffee right before his alarm was due to go off, which was a pretty acceptable substitute.

He turned off his alarm and then sat in bed for another ten minutes, sipping his coffee and enjoying the one peaceful part of his entire day. Then he drained the dregs, got up, and went to take a shower.

He decided against shaving again, gave up on his slightly-too-long hair as a lost cause of neatness, and got dressed in his usual black uniform, sliding the controllers up onto his biceps after he pulled on his tough yet comfortable Antianeiran-style tall boots. He saved his rank medallion for last, relaxing as soon as it had slipped around his neck. Jack probably would have understood the feeling, if Daniel had ever had the chance to describe it to him- he felt the same way when he was wearing his dog tags.

He headed down to the kitchen first, and snagged a second cup of coffee and a breakfast pastry-thing that was part bagel, part croissant and covered in honey and nuts from the cook, the widowed Mrs. Maple. She'd saved Skaara's life on Elysia when she'd brained one of the invading Jaffa with a frying pan before he could shoot the Captain in the back, and out of gratitude she'd been given a place in their household here in Themiscyra. It didn't hurt that she was a fantastic cook.

He was just finishing his last bite when he made it up to his council room and found Naoya patiently waiting for him, standing with his hip cocked out a little to the left, the same way he always stood. His planet had become the battleground between Izanami and Izanagi, a wedded pair of Goa'uld who had been fighting each other for as long as anyone could remember. He'd gotten caught on the battlefield and lost his right leg below the knee to a staff weapon blast. Daniel had been on the cleanup crew after the Jaffa troops had departed, and he'd been the one to cauterize the wound to prevent him from bleeding out and help him limp back to base camp, and for that Naoya had sworn himself into Daniel's service. Their engineers had done their best to design a false leg for him, but even they could only do so much, and Naoya didn't seem to have faith in its steadiness, even now after almost a year and a half, so he always trusted the majority of weight to his real, unharmed leg.

"Naoya," Daniel said. "Sorry I'm late." It was an apology for form's sake, since he was always late, and Naoya knew it perfectly well.

"It's not a problem, sir," Naoya said. "Shall we begin?"

Daniel slumped down into his seat with a disconsolate sigh. God, he hated paperwork. "Alright, hit me."

"You wish me to strike you, sir? Are you not awake yet?" He asked it with a straight face, too.

Daniel shot him an unhappy glare. "Oh, that's very funny, Naoya. For that, get me another cup of coffee."

"Of course, sir," he said, but Daniel held up a hand before he could actually turn it away.

"Give me the work, then get me the coffee; it works better than way," and Naoya sketched a short bow before setting the p'lth down on the table in front of Daniel and activating it.

Naoya faded out of the room in search of coffee while Daniel studied the display. Tsh'nra technology was something completely unique in this galaxy, as far as Daniel had been able to determine- a fascinating combination of mechanical engineering and vegetation. They literally _grew_ their technology, setting the mechanical sections into a precisely designed hydroponics garden and planting seeds in a careful configuration around them. The plant sections were genetically engineered to grow in the correct design, and were implanted with part of the Tsh'nra's own DNA, which allowed the plant to carry electrical signals just as a Tsh'nra nervous system would, thus allowing the mechanical sections to operate in harmony with the vegetative. It was a remarkably efficient system, and one they used for everything from the operation systems of their ships to the fist-sized p'lth, which functioned as a sort of pocket computer.

Sam was going to love this, Daniel though absently, and then smiled as soon as he thought of it. For the first time in two years, she would actually be able to love it, to appreciate the wonders he'd discovered. She was here, or would be later today when SG-1 returned- they all would be. Sam, Teal'c, and, God, Jack- all of his lost friends, finally here with him. He could finally show them all that he'd accomplished; show how he'd built this forgotten little backwater of a planet into a power center for the fight against the Goa'uld. More than a dozen different races lived here, from over thirty different planets. And it was his job to make sure that everyone was cared for, that everyone worked together in harmony, between themselves in Sinope and with the Antianeirans here in Themiscyra.

He supposed he wanted them to be proud of what he'd done here. He wanted them to look around and be stunned, impressed- awed, even. And hell, since it was his daydream, why didn't he just go all the way and have Jack sweeping him off his feet?

Amused at himself, he shook himself out of his thoughts and went back to studying the readout, touching the hologram every time he navigated to a different page. There were several reports he had to read, including the weekly notes from the Council of Ten and the complaints, forwarded by Rashid, the Council secretary, from citizens who hadn't been satisfied with the ruling of the Council. He skimmed through them quickly, noted the ones that actually deserved redress for further attention later, and then composed his usual blanket reply to the ones who were clearly just whining.

Next was the lengthy report from Xyn's shipboard computers, on the things she'd seen in her wanderings over the last month. Using his glimpses of her recent memories as a guide, he skimmed that too, and sorted it into two categories. The information relevant to the Goa'uld was moved into a separate folder and sent to Sarth's p'lth, and everything else he flagged for later examination and left for a day when he had a little more patience.

Finished with his paperwork, so to speak, he took a treasured five minutes to finish the coffee a soft-footed Naoya had brought while he was working. Then he got up and went in search of Xyn.

He found her napping on the roof, just like he'd thought. She had shed the thin, form-fitting dress she wore when planetside and was lying stretched-out and naked, the three vein networks pulsing hard against the confines of her skin from the touch of the sun. Her dress was a tiny mound near her left foot, the black fabric almost unnoticeable against the hot black metal of the roof.

Tsh'nra on the whole tended to wear clothes with extremely flamboyant colors, in order to counteract the unrelenting sameness of their own bodies. Once the Freedom Coalition had been established, however, Sarth had suggested that all official FC personnel wear black, to set themselves apart from the white uniform of the Antianeiran ruling house. The day that Daniel started wearing black, Xyn did the same, and nothing he'd said had been able to sway her.

"You wear black to show that these men and women, they are of your house, yes?"

"Something like that," he'd said. "They're under my command. It's just a symbol, Xyn, it doesn't really mean anything."

"Symbols always mean something; that's what they're for," she'd said, and since she'd been right, he hadn't been able to argue with her. So when she'd said, "And I am of your house, so I should wear your color as well," he hadn't been able to argue with that either, so black it had been for her ever since. Only her sleep shirts showed her natural inclination towards color, and that was only because he didn't wear his uniform to bed- and he'd made sure that none of his sleep clothes, when he wore them, were black, dark blue, or even gray, just so that she wouldn't feel obligated.

"You're supposed to be working," she said, without opening her eyes. She didn't need to look to know he was there. She recognized the touch of his mind just as well as the rhythm of his footsteps, even as quiet as they were in the soft-soled ka-hide boots. Ka beasts were stupid beyond any measure Daniel had, but they were easy to herd, and they made good eating as well as providing the easily died, strangely durable hide for boots and clothing. They'd pulled the plows decades ago, before Antianeiran engineers had figured out how to use leftover alien technology in Themiscyra to cobble together a template for farming machines.

"I finished all the paperwork already," he said.

"No, you didn't."

"Alright, I finished _most_ of it," he admitted, remembering the way he'd just marked some of the work and left it for later. "Anyway, I don't have much of anything left to do today except wait for Jack and Sam and Teal'c to show up and open negotiations."

"You've prepped everyone, on the Tau'ri?" she said.

It never stopped being a surprise, listening to her talk. Sometimes, she spoke as formally as any off-worlder he'd ever met, and then she'd shock him by dropping slang into a conversation. He knew she'd picked it all up from him, but that didn't make it any less odd to hear a word like "prepped" casually thrown into a phrase spoken in her slightly stilted, off-center cadence.

"Of course I have," Daniel said. "I prepped them _months_ ago, when we first started talking about the possibility of extending the invitation at all. I think Earth could be a valuable ally to us in the fight against the Goa'uld, but I don't want them moving in and taking over. America has a habit of doing that."

"I trust you," Xyn said. She opened her eyes, the black almost completely swallowed by the white of her pupils as she absorbed the sunlight. "I know that Lyta and Sarth trust you, too."

"More than I trust me," he muttered to himself, but he sat down next to her anyway. "Do you know that there are people from over thirty planets, here on Pontus?" he asked her. "I negotiated for their entrance myself, every single one of them. And yet I'm nervous about working with a team that I actually know. How crazy is that?"

"Because they are people you care about," Xyn told him. "You have been apart for two years, and you love them. Of course you are nervous."

"Right," Daniel said, shaking his head. "Of course I am. Silly me."

"You are not silly, Daniel," she said, laying one hand over his. Her pale skin was hot to the touch, far hotter than a human physiology would ever allow. "Neither are matters of the heart."

"This isn't a matter of the heart, it's a matter of state!" Daniel said. "It's wonderful to see them all again, of course, but I can't forget what's at stake. The Pentagon is going to be pressuring them for all the leverage it can get with us, and there's way too much riding on this to let it get too personal."

"It is already personal," she said. "For you, and I think for them as well. O'Neill became so wonderfully jealous last night, Daniel, you had to have noticed it. He cares for you more than a mere friend."

"We were _best_ friends before," Daniel pointed out. "And he never did trust any of the aliens we worked with." He stopped to think. "Except Thor. He really liked Thor."

"Now you are being silly," she told him. He didn't say anything, and she sighed and shook her head at him. "Fine. Be that way. But you're going to see that I am right, you know. I always am."

"Almost always," he corrected. "And we'll see." His communicator beeped at him. "But later, because right now I have things to attend to." He tapped the band. "Jackson."

"Kor Asek is here, sir," Naoya said.

Fantastic. This was not shaping up to be one of Daniel's Best Days Ever. "At the Stargate, here, or in my office, here?"

"The Stargate, sir. You're the only one who knows his language."

Ah, of course. Daniel Jackson, the great communicator. "Alright," he said. "Send Myrine and her team to bring him up- she does the pickups, so she can say at least a hello, and he'll recognize her. I'll be down there as soon as possible. Jackson out."

He tapped off the communicator and looked down at Xyn, who was waiting patiently. "Duty calls," he said. "Are you going to stay here all day, or will you be down for the banquet later?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world, Daniel," she said, and squeezed his hand affectionately for a moment before letting it go and closing her startlingly white eyes again. He stayed where he was for a moment, stealing just a few seconds more to bask in her presence, and then forced himself to get to his feet and go back downstairs to his responsibilities.

Naoya was waiting for him, right outside of his council room. "He's inside, sir," he said. "Myrine brought him up and left again." The reproof was clear in Naoya's quiet voice.

"Don't blame her, Lor'nac started the final round of testing yesterday," Daniel told him. "You know she mentored some of those women into the piloting program. She wants to cheer them on."

Naoya's nod was entirely neutral- it was hard to tell if he agreed with Daniel or not. Then again, Naoya only rarely thought well of Myrine. She could be a bit… abrasive even at the best of times.

"Tell Skaara to keep an eye on the Gate," Daniel told him. "As soon as SG-1 arrives, he's to go down and bring them back up here. Hopefully I'll be done by then."

"Understood," Naoya said, and Daniel went into his council room and closed the door behind him.

"Kor Asek," he said, bowing his head in respect. Kor Asek inclined his head in return.

"Dan'el," he said, and stepped aside so that Daniel could walk past him and sit down in his chair, his position of power. Daniel was the clan leader here, and it never hurt to remind Kor Asek of it. Though Kor Asek, for all of his ferocity, was a canny leader, and fully capable of negotiating a mining treaty that Daniel himself would never have thought up. Kor Asek wasn't as susceptible to traditional cues of domination and submission as most of his people.

"So," he said, and dredged up every bit of his limited Unas vocabulary. "Myrine ker jin?"

"Mrn ko," Kor Asek rumbled. It was the closest approximation of her name he could manage, but Daniel had gotten used it- and more importantly, Myrine seemed to find it funny, so they'd never been in for one of her famous rages over the issue. Hell of a soldier, that women, but not the easiest to work with. "Dan'el med pek?"

"Na," Daniel said, and, pleasantries exchanged, settled down for a more serious talk.

This was why he got the fancy corner office, after all. Time to get to work.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three**

* * *

It was just like the day before. Jack and his team stepped through the gate, and within a couple minutes Skaara and his team appeared out of the jungle vegetation.

"Oneel!" he said. "Welcome back."

"Hey, Skaara," Jack said. "It's pretty good to be back." Carter obviously agreed with him, if her eagerness in the briefing this morning was any indication. Teal'c looked just like he always did, but Jack knew that he was looking forward to seeing Daniel again, if nothing else. Jack was, too.

"I am to bring you to Daniel right away," Skaara said. "He is most pleased that you have returned."

"So are we all," Jack said, and waved Skaara on. "Let's go, then. Lead the way."

This time Skaara led them directly from the ring room to Daniel's council room. Jack wanted to know why they couldn't transport directly into the room, since it was equipped with rings, but Skaara shook his head at him, as if Jack should have known how stupid a question that was.

"He is the _Minister,_" Skaara said, like that explained everything. When Jack just gave him the duh face, Skaara explained, "It is his council room, where meetings are held and decisions are made. The last I have heard, he was meeting with Kor Asek, and it would be a very bad idea to disturb them."

Jack had no idea who the hell Kor Asek was, but he'd just have to take Skaara's word for it. "So what do we do, wait?"

"You could try knocking, sir," Carter pointed out snidely. Jack shot her a disgruntled look then lifted his hand and, well, knocked.

"Come in," Daniel called, and Jack gave a hopefully-hidden sigh of relief at the sound of his voice before opening the door and entering the room.

Daniel was sitting in his throne-chair, with a small fist-sized lump of something on the table in front of him projecting a holographic display. Daniel was tapping the table impatiently with one hand as he read quickly. There was a very large Unas standing next to him that tensed and growled low in its throat when they came in.

"Hello!" he said when he saw who it was, obviously delighted to see them. Then he seemed to remember the Unas and winced. "Um, could you hang on a second? I need to finish this so I can give the information to Kor Asek before he leaves again."

"We can wait," Jack said, who had no desire to tangle with an Unas as large and war-like as this one, and on either side he saw Cater and Teal'c nodding in hasty agreement. Daniel grinned absent-mindedly at them and went back to the readout, touching the image every few seconds to change it.

"Okay, got it," he said, and started sketching out gate symbols on a piece of paper near his elbow. There were three addresses when he was finished, and he very carefully folded the paper and handed it to the Unas with a few growled, incomprehensible syllables. The Unas growled something in return, and only when it turned and fixed its reptilian eyes on them did Jack realize that they were standing in front of the door. All three of them moved hastily aside.

Daniel looked over their shoulders toward Skaara. "Would you show Kor Asek back to the gate, please?" he said. Skaara nodded, and Daniel turned back to the Unas. "Skaara til jek."

"Na," it said. "Nir lox, Dan'el."

"Nir lox," Daniel said, and bowed his head. The Unas inclined its in return, and then made its way out of the room, following Skaara and satisfying itself with one last, suspicious glance over his shoulder at them.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Daniel said, once it was gone. "Normally he doesn't come here, we just make the pickups on his world. But he discovered a new, deeper vein, and he needed more workers to mine it. And since it's sacred ground, they have to be Unas workers. I was just going through the database to find any other Unas-inhabited worlds that Kor Asek could negotiate with."

"They're that smart?" Jack asked. "I mean, I know you said they were intelligent beings, and everything, but still. That's..."

"More than you expected?" Daniel supplied, and shrugged. "I've learned not to underestimate them. Kor Asek, in particular, is a very intelligent clan leader. He controls not only his clan, but dozens of them on his world." Daniel seemed to realize that he was rambling, and snapped out of it. "Anyway. You didn't come here to talk about the Unas."

"No, we didn't," Jack said. "We came here to talk alliance."

Daniel smiled at them. "I thought you might," he said. "Well, we were hoping you would, anyway. And with that in mind, Lyta is waiting with Sarth and Antiope in the dining hall."

"Starting a meeting over lunch, huh?" Jack asked. "Canny bargaining indeed. Alright, sounds good to me."

"That's because you have a hollow leg," Daniel pointed out. Jack froze for an infinitesimal fraction of a second, because it was so infinitely strange to hear Daniel say that, with such confidence, even though before yesterday they hadn't seen each other for two years. Because Daniel knew him, just that well, and he wasn't worried at all, when Jack was practically vibrating with his own nervousness. God, it was Daniel, how could he not be tense?

"Uh, unless you're on a diet or something now," Daniel added with a nervous laugh, and Jack just shook his head and made a conscious effort to relax. No need for Daniel to think that Jack was pissed with him.

"Nah, you saw the way I ate last night," he said lightly. _Even if graybeard was blocking you view,_ he thought sarcastically, making sure that it didn't show on his face. He didn't have any right to be jealous. Not that it had ever slowed him down in the past, but still. He had no right.

"Good to know some things never change," Daniel said, making a good recovery of his casual tone, but Jack didn't fail to notice that he turned away immediately after that, so that Jack couldn't see his face. God, he was nervous, maybe even as nervous as him, and Jack was almost vibrating with tension. It was strangely reassuring. Daniel had all these great new friends and what seemed to be a fantastic new life, and yet, he was nervous talking to Jack O'Neill. If nothing else, at least Jack knew that the playing field was a little more level. It was the best odds he ever got, with Daniel or with anyone.

"Anyway," Daniel said, when the silence started to stretch on too long, "it's about time for us to-"

"Hey, Daniel!" a female voice demanded from behind them. They all turned to see a woman standing in the doorway, dressed in the white Antianeiran military uniform, red hair tightly braided down her back. "It's that time again."

"Myrine," Daniel said, and Jack gave her another, more thorough once-over. This was the woman Skaara had the hots for? Well, he had taste, Jack'd give him that- she was gorgeous- but it looked like he was gonna have his hands full with this one. She was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over her chest in a pose of misleading relaxation, attitude and competence screaming from every line of her. Yeah, she could kick his ass. He hoped Skaara was into pain.

"Daniel," Myrine said back, arching an eyebrow at him.

"Myrine," Daniel said, apparently losing patience. Myrine smirked. It was eerily reminiscent of a hundred conversations Jack had had with Daniel, though he was pretty sure he'd never looked quite that smug. Then again, he'd never gotten a rise out of Daniel quite that fast. "I assume you're going to tell me what's going on?"

"The Master finished his exams," Myrine said. Daniel beamed.

"That's fantastic. Did your girls make it?"

"Every last one of 'em," she said smugly. "And they're on their way here."

"Oh no," Daniel said. "Not again?"

"The Master insisted," Myrine said with another smug grin. "Anyway, thought I'd give you a heads-up. I'm gonna get a head start on lunch. See ya down there." And then she sauntered right back out, tossing a jaunty wave over her shoulder.

"So," Jack said into the silence. "That was Myrine."

"Uh, yes," Daniel said. "She's… a bit of a handful."

"You can say that again," Jack said. "Who is she, anyway? Antianeiran military, I know, but what's her rank?"

"Captain," Daniel said. "She's Skaara's counterpart in the Antianeiran forces. The both command a strike team that they put together, the first wave of attack when we're taking out a Goa'uld ship or stronghold, and the search-and-rescue team when we're doing clean-up." Daniel shrugged. "I think he just wants her because she keeps turning him down."

"I'm pretty sure I can think of a few other reasons," Carter put in, her voice very dry. She'd apparently noticed Jack's once-over and misinterpreted it. As fucking usual.

"She seems a capable warrior," Teal'c said diplomatically. Daniel smiled at him in relief- even he, famously uncaring of the Carter-O'Neill interactions, had picked up on the tensions between them.

"She is," Daniel said. "Still doesn't think much of men in general, but she's made some exceptions."

"Like you," Jack said. He hadn't missed the affection in the young woman's eyes. She loved him, that was obvious, though she probably thought about him like a little brother, ignoring the fact that he was older and wiser than her. Carter had done the same thing.

"And the Master," Carter added. "Who is he, anyway? She doesn't really look the type to have any master, if you know what I mean."

"Ah, no," Daniel said, suddenly looking unbearably amused. "She's not. And he's not her Master. It's a courtesy title. He's-"

"KREE!" a voice rumbled, right outside their door. Everyone whipped around to face the open doorway, hands already on their weapons.

"A Jaffa," Daniel finished, right before a man every bit as massive as Teal'c strode through the doorway, slapping a pair of hide gloves against his thigh. Unlike Teal'c, he had pale skin and eyes, with short-clipped blonde hair. He was dressed in full Jaffa military garb, chain mail and a steel breastplate, and he wore the black mark of Apophis on his forehead.

"The new recruits are ready for you inspection, Minister Jackson," the man said, his face an open mask of pride and pleasure. "I think you will be pleased indeed."

"Master Lor'nac," Daniel said. "May I introduce Colonel Jack O'Neill, Major Samantha Carter, and Teal'c? They've come from Earth to negotiate an alliance between our worlds."

But Lor'nac was already looking at them- or rather, at Teal'c, who was staring right back like he'd seen a ghost. "Teal'c," Lor'nac said, his smile growing. "Blessed be this day, to see you free from Apophis' yoke with my own two eyes. Well met, old friend."

"Lor'nac," Teal'c said, and did something Jack had never, ever seen him do: he strode forward and enveloped the other man in a bone-crushing hug. Lor'nac just laughed and pounded his back, embracing Teal'c just as tightly in return.

"I thought you were dead," Teal'c said, once they'd released each other. He kept his hands on Lor'nac's shoulders, staring at him with undisguised wonder. "I saw you put to death with my own two eyes."

"I escaped from my death in that tomb and made my way to a nearby village. There I lived for many years, until Minister Jackson and his men came by to save us from the impending attack by Ba'al's troops. I have been in his service ever since."

"And it has been exemplary," Daniel said quietly to Jack- and Carter, too, since she was standing right next to him and looking as confused as he felt by the little Jaffa love-fest. Man, he hadn't thought that Teal'c even knew _how_ to smile, much less hug. "He and his men- there's six rebel Jaffa who serve under him- train the new recruits from Sinope that want to serve in the military arm of the Freedom Coalition. He also teaches anyone who wants to learn how to pilot the Goa'uld ships in the hangar. Myrine had a few handpicked favorites in the current training session, which is why she came by to brag."

"He's the other man who has her respect," Carter said.

"Yeah, got that already," Jack said. She glared at him.

"He has everyone's respect," Daniel corrected, ignoring their bickering. "He's the best pilot there is, and a wonderful teacher. There's waiting list for his training sessions."

"And this- whatshisname, and Teal'c? Did you know that they'd been friends?"

"Teal'c had mentioned him, once or twice," Daniel said. "I didn't know it was him until I was explaining how I'd come to be here, and Lor'nac told me what had happened. Apparently they'd been really good friends, back in the day, right up until Apophis discovered that Lor'nac was deliberately undermining him and forced Teal'c to watch as Lor'nac was sealed inside an tomb- buried alive."

"But Lor'nac escaped," Carter said.

"And the rest is history," Jack said, resisting the urge to say "duh!" Hadn't she been paying attention?

"Something like that," Daniel said. Raising his voice, he said, "Master Lor'nac, we're expected down in the banquet hall, to begin negotiations. If you'd like to join us, you and Teal'c are more than welcome to catch-up over our meal."

"I'd be honored," Lor'nac said, bowing briefly, then jerked his head towards the door. "If you'd speak to the recruits, though, I'd greatly appreciate it."

"Of course," Daniel said, then gave Jack a distracted look. "Wait here, would you? I'll only be a minute."

"No way," Jack said, and made to follow him out the door. Carter, he noticed contemptuously, stayed where Daniel had told her. Wimp.

Daniel, however, was definitely onto him, because he was fast to shut the door behind him, effectively slamming it in Jack's face. Jack pulled up just in time, glared at the door for a moment or two, and briefly considered just staying where he was and eavesdropping. Lor'nac and Teal'c were too busy talking to each other to notice and disapprove, and it wasn't like Carter's opinion of him could get much lower.

But Skaara was in the room, too, he noticed when he looked around. He must have slipped back in from escorting Kor Asek to the gate when they were occupied by the whole hugging, happy-reunion thing. Skaara was happily watching him, and Jack was always loathe to do anything that would make the kid think any less of him. It was always flattering to know that someone thought of you as their hero, and Skaara was a hero in his own right, as well as being someone that Jack cared about personally, so it meant more coming from him. No way Jack was going to upset that particular applecart by doing something characteristically stupid.

So he stayed far enough away that he couldn't hear what was said, but close enough so that he could listen to the rise and fall of Daniel's voice. He'd always loved to listen to Daniel talk, even if he hadn't wanted or cared to know what Daniel was actually talking about. He had a nice voice, light and expressive. His voice was his trademark, the thing he used to greet aliens all over the galaxy, the thing that caught at your ear and captured your mind and made you fall in love with him.

Yeah, Jack thought. He'd always loved Daniel's voice.

Daniel came back in after about five minutes, looking flushed but happy. Apparently his little speech, whatever it was, had been well-received. Like there was ever any doubt, Jack thought. People were besotted with Daniel just from seeing him smile; an inspirational speech from Minister Jackson to a bunch of new recruits was guaranteed to a whole new breed of crush, just for him.

"Alright," Daniel said, gesturing towards the door. "I think lunch has waited long enough, don't you think?"

"Absolutely," replied Jack, trying not to let himself be caught up in that engaging smile, and added, over his shoulder towards Carter and Teal'c, "I'm ready whenever you are."

"I am ready now, O'Neill," Teal'c said immediately, while Carter just shrugged. Jack took this to be agreement enough, and looked back to Daniel.

"Lead the way," he said, and followed Daniel out when he did.

* * *

Daniel looked around the table and had to hold in a sigh.

Teal'c and Lor'nac were at the far end of the table, sitting across from each other and talking in low rumbling voices, intimate and private despite the public setting. On the Lyta's side, Antiope was talking to Sarth, her wedding band flashing in the light whenever she moved her hands. Myrine was on her other side, almost apoplectic with irritation at the presence of Skaara, seated smugly between her and Lor'nac. On his side, Xyn was at his right hand, as always, with Sam next to her and Jack sitting in between Sam and Teal'c. Either Jack had finally gotten a clue about cultural politics and was placing Sam in a position of respect to placate their matriarchal hosts, or he just didn't want to sit next to Xyn. And as much as Daniel refused to ever underestimate Jack's carefully hidden intelligence, he was pretty sure it was the latter.

Lyta was sitting directly next to him at the head of the broad table, eating her dinner with supreme lack of concern at the tensions stretching around the table. It was one of the things that always irritated Daniel the most about her, that she never seemed to care about the personality conflicts of her people, as long as they all worked together well enough. It was always up to Daniel to smooth things over- which, actually, wasn't that different from when he was on SG-1. No wonder he'd settled so comfortably into working with her. She was just as bad as Jack.

Which brought him back to the Colonel himself, who was sitting two seats removed from Daniel and seemed to be torn between watching Teal'c and Lor'nac with unabashed curiosity and glaring at Xyn with equally unabashed dislike. Daniel swallowed a sigh. Xyn had shown up, just as promised, but at the moment he was regretting asking her to attend. She was having too much fun teasing Jack with every over-the-top flirtatious look and sweet remark that she gave to Daniel, and Jack was getting steadily more pissed with her. Which was _just_ what he needed on top of Skaara's constant and unorthodox courtship of a very unreceptive Myrine and Jack and Sam's apparent inability to speak civilly to one another. Daniel wasn't even sure he _wanted_ to know what had happened between them.

No. That was an absolute lie. He desperately wanted to know what had happened between them. Daniel had always been aware of the slightly sexual, slightly antagonistic tension between them, ever since that first irritable, "I thought you wanted to be called _Captain,_" from Jack. Before he died, Kowalsky had found the time to tell Daniel the story of the highly entertaining first encounter in the briefing room, told in Kowalsky's usual deadpan hyperbole. Daniel had laughed at the time, but buried the memory after Kowalsky's death, not wanting to think about the last friendly conversation with the man who'd gone through the battle on Abydos with him. At the time, Kowalsky had been one of very few friends on Earth, and he'd done his grieving in private, knowing it was nothing compared to Jack's much greater loss, the first of many the stargate would exact on him.

But that didn't mean he'd forgotten the meaning behind the story, or his own observations. Jack and Sam had always had a "thing." Teal'c had noticed it, though he'd never said anything to Daniel; it had lurked in his eyes sometimes, hidden behind his stoic expression while he watched Jack and Sam laughing, or more often arguing, with each other. Then again, far less observant people than Daniel or Teal'c knew about the "thing;" it was written all over them. Equally obvious was that they both knew that they could never do anything about it.

They'd seem to enjoy dancing along the line between what was acceptable and what wasn't- a specialty of Jack's, and he'd instilled the trait in his team, too. Daniel had always been conscious of what they were doing, and how often they came too close to going too far, so he'd done everything in his power to keep them from going over. He knew Teal'c had always done the same, distracting Jack at a critical moment, just as Daniel knew how to draw Sam's attention away to something shiny and mechanical, or how to provoke Jack into focusing on Daniel and whatever they were arguing about, instead of his ongoing flirtation with his 2IC.

Maybe Teal'c hadn't been enough, after Daniel was gone. Teal'c had a brilliant mind hidden behind that expressionless mask, more than capable of manipulating a situation to his advantage, or for the benefit of the man he considered a brother. But Teal'c, for all his brotherly, warrior bond that he had with Jack, didn't know the man the way Daniel did. He didn't always understand what drove him, didn't spend enough time just sitting around in front of the TV drinking beer that he hated, didn't love him the way Daniel did. And he never would have been able to handle Sam the way Daniel could, since Teal'c, for all his intelligence, didn't understand the lure of science, the way that it consumed Sam, the way Daniel could. Daniel understood it because he lived it, albeit in a different field of expertise.

No, Teal'c wouldn't have been enough. Daniel had been gone for over two years- eventually, they would have stepped over that line.

Obviously it hadn't gone well. They were like angry cats and dogs, circling around each other, chained together by the bonds of necessity and team cohesion, snarling and snapping at one another while poor Teal'c tried so hard to carefully rein them both in.

Daniel knew enough to extrapolate what had happened. They'd probably had sex after one particularly close call on a mission, and then stumbled their way into a relationship because it's what they expected to want. Only when they'd been together a month, maybe two, the first blush of romance wore off, and all the things that used to irritate them about each other got worse. Jack wouldn't like Sam's zealous dedication to her lab work, wouldn't understand her need to do more, discover more, be more, and he'd get cold. Sam wouldn't understand why he was pulling back, would hate that he never opened up to her about past tragedies, would assume that he needed to talk things out for it to be a real relationship. All the sneaking around they'd done in the beginning would stop seeming romantic and start seeming dangerous, and irritating. They'd fight, and it would get ugly, and they'd both say things they regretted later. But they'd both be too proud to apologize, and they'd never really get over it, would hold the grudge for another month or six or a year or however long it had been since that day and this one, because they very obviously still hadn't forgiven or forgotten.

Yes, Daniel knew them both all too well. If he'd been on the team it wouldn't have happened. He would have seen it coming, would have stopped it. The night after that fateful mission he would have been there to take Sam out to dinner, or to get drunk at Jack's house, anything to keep them separate, to put off the inevitable a little while longer. He'd been good at that. He couldn't have stopped it, if he'd been there.

But he hadn't been. And so he stayed silent, ate his dinner, and pretended not to notice the tensions stretching along both sides of the table.

Eventually dinner was over, the dishes were cleared away, dessert was brought out, and it was time to talk business. "So," Lyta said, after her first pleasurable bite. "We have filled our stomachs, and now it is time to talk of an alliance between our worlds."

"Absolutely," Jack said. He didn't even pick up his fork. He hadn't eaten much all evening, despite his earlier claims to hunger after Daniel's clumsy comments. "What do you have in mind?"

Lyta took another dainty bite of the spun sugar concoction on her plate, letting the silence linger (and Jack's impatience grow) as she let it melt on her tongue, savoring the taste. "Well, you already know that we are offering full access to our technology and mining operations, of course."

"And I would just like to thank you for that," Jack added with an ingratiating smile. He did have one, though he used it so very rarely. Not one for ingratiation, Jack was. "We've had a bellyful of condescending aliens who want to protect us from ourselves."

"Understandable," Lyta said with a nod. "I must say that it hasn't been much of a problem for us so far, as most of the technologically advanced races we encounter are quickly absorbed into the fabric of our society and often quite grateful for their lives, but we have encountered the attitude before. It can be frustrating, I understand, but it is a point of view not without common sense."

Daniel loved to listen to her talk. Language was both his passion and his art, and she was a fantastic example of both. Her first language, the modified Greek that had been the most common here on Pontus before the integration of what eventually became the Freedom Coalition, was absolutely beautiful to listen to, sweet and musical like the sound of water flowing over the rocks. She'd known some English when they'd met on the Tsh'nra home world, since English, for whatever reason, seemed to be main language the Goa'uld had spread to all their worlds, and she'd become fluent in a matter of weeks. She spoke Goa'uld, too, and had learned a smattering of all the main languages that Daniel ran into on other worlds, the better to communicate with their refugee population in Sinope, those who didn't already speak any of the languages common to the galaxy. Whatever the language, she both was the most precise speaker he'd ever met, and the most expressive. In another life, she could have been an actress of the highest caliber. She was a pleasure to watch in action- and to listen to.

Jack obviously shared his appreciation, if his assessing gaze was anything to go by. Jack was a brilliant judge of character, most times. His wary respect of Hippolyta was one of the best compliments he could give.

"Yeah, we've heard all the arguments before," Jack said. "But the fact is, protecting us from ourselves doesn't help a whole hell of a lot when the Goa'uld come knocking at our doorstep, looking to do the destroying for us."

"I happen to agree," Lyta said. "Which is why we are offering the deal that we are."

"Which is… what, exactly?" Jack asked. "You've mentioned that you're offering us just about everything, and you say all you want in return is some military assistance. What does that entail? Specifically speaking."

You wouldn't have seen it if you hadn't been watching for it, but Daniel was and he did- a little flash of respect in Lyta's eyes, before she ducked her head to take another bite of dessert. So she wasn't underestimating Jack either, Daniel thought. Good. He respected Lyta enormously; she was one of the sharpest thinkers he'd ever met, but Jack could be deceptively thick-headed, and any person who assumed that it was the full truth of his intelligence was bound to be in for a surprise. Daniel preferred to have as few surprises as possible, especially when negotiating an alliance. That sort of situation never turned out well.

"What we are offering," Lyta said, "is, _specifically,_ information and supplies for personnel. We're willing to give you full access to any technology we possess, as well as more than fair portions of our mining efforts, both our own and that of our offworld allies. All we ask in exchange is that men from your military create a base here in our city, so that we can better fight the Goa'uld, and that scientists help us with the technology that we do not fully understand."

"That's very… generous of you," Jack said levelly. Daniel could read skepticism on every line of his face. "We know why you need help with the doohickeys, and I'm sure Carter and her pet geeks can give you a hand with that, but I gotta ask why you need soldiers. From everything I've heard, you've got things pretty well in hand."

Now Sam was glaring at Jack again. Fantastic.

"It's true, that we have trained our women, and men," she added with a nod to Sarth, who had done much of that training, "in certain methods that give us a particular advantage over the Goa'uld. Your soldiers would, of course, need to learn these methods before they would be an effective addition to our forces."

"Of course," Jack murmured.

"But my women are few in number compared to the might of the Jaffa armies, though they are far more skilled, and the soldiers under Commander Attyn are growing in number, but as he accepts only the best of the volunteers from those we have rescued, the process is slow. Simply put, Colonel, the system lords are growing wary of our involvement, and with the new safeguards in place against us, we need more people, people who have been fighting the Goa'uld and know what to expect. We need your people, who have made great strides in their fight against the Goa'uld despite the lack of certain technological and tactical advantages that we enjoy."

"Thank you for that very tactful way of saying we suck," Jack said. "And yeah, it all makes sense, and it all sounds great. Which means that there's a catch. And I'd like to know what it is."

Lyta cocked her head to the side, and stared at him for a long moment. Lesser men had been known to break under that particular look, even hardened warriors who respected few. Daniel held his breath; but Jack didn't look away.

"There is one… condition," Lyta said finally.

"Just one?" Jack asked. "Alright, let's hear it."

"Whoever commands this base will have to report to myself and Minister Jackson," she said.

"No way," Jack said immediately.

"Jack," Daniel started, but Jack turned on him.

"No way! There is no fucking way that it's going to happen, Daniel, and if you remember a damn thing about Earth, you should know that just as well as I do."

"Why not?" Daniel asked.

"Little thing called chain of command, ever heard of it? We _can't_ have our men reporting to a foreign ruler, whether they're on Earth or not. Especially not if that ruler is you," Jack added. "You can just imagine how the Pentagon would be doing cartwheels over _that._"

"That's not what we're asking, Jack," Daniel said carefully. "We just need to be kept informed. We do things a little differently here, and we can't really trust any new recruits not to screw things up, even if they're from Earth. Establishing an entire base here in Themiscyra only complicates things, you know that. We don't want to command your base, but we absolutely _need_ to know everything that's going on. This is our world, Jack. You know that the Pentagon would do the same if the situations were reversed, and they probably wouldn't be as generous as we're being."

Deep grooves appeared by the corners of Jack's mouth and between his brows as he frowned, but he was definitely thinking. "I'll include it in the report," he said finally. "I can't make any promises- you know what things are like, Daniel- but I'll do my best. As long as there aren't any more surprises," he added to Lyta. "There aren't, are there? I'm going to really hate it if there are any more little 'conditions' like this one."

"No, that is all that I require," Lyta said. "I know that Daniel feels the same."

Daniel nodded when Jack shot him an inquiring look. "There's nothing else, Jack, I promise," he said, as sincerely as he knew how. They really needed Jack's cooperation on this. He was something of a loose canon, but he was also an intergalactic hero, and Daniel knew that his opinion held a lot of weight with the Pentagon.

"Alright," Jack sighed. "I'll do what I can to talk things around. _After_ dessert," he added, picking up his fork at last, and Lyta laughed and nodded.

"Of course, Colonel," she said, all smiles now that she'd gotten her way, and Daniel hid a smile at Jack's expression as he picked up his own fork and followed suit.

So. One narrowly averted disaster down. Daniel just hoped that the next crisis- and it was inevitable that there would be one, there always was when it came to Jack- would be resolved as easily.

* * *

Jack reported back to General Hammond via MALP. "It's practically a dream come true, sir," he said, trying to hide how very, very tired he was of the whole business. "They're offering us access to all their technology, portions of their naquadah and trinium mining efforts, and the establishment of an offworld SGC base in the city. All they're asking in exchange is that our base is located within the city itself, just as the Antianeiran and Freedom Coalition soldiers are, and that whoever is assigned to command the base answers to the Queen and Minister as the commanders of the dual governments." _See, Danny?_ he wanted to gloat. _I can talk fancy too, when I want._

There was a long silence from Hammond's end. "That might be a problem," he said finally, the low quality of the MALP radio transmission not enough to hide the apprehension in his voice. "I don't have to tell you the kind of uproar that went around yesterday, when the Pentagon learned about Dr. Jackson's new position. Bad enough that we have to negotiate with him for our treaty; they're going to hit the roof at the thought of an American military commander reporting to any offworld leader, much less one of our own former personnel."

"Well, it's not quite like that, sir," Jack said. "They don't want to command our base. They just want to make sure that we're not doing anything stupidly dangerous, which is pretty reasonable, sir, considering that it would be their planet at risk if we screw up and call any attention to ourselves."

"They have an iris, don't they?"

"Yes sir, but Pontus is much closer to Goa'uld-controlled space than Earth, and the shield can protect them from detection but not from full-scale destruction if the Goa'uld decides to bomb the planet."

The General was silent for a long moment. "What's your recommendation, Colonel?"

Jack wanted to laugh. "Well, sir, I don't know how much weight my opinion will hold with the boys at the Pentagon, but for what it's worth, I say we go for it. We've been at this a lot longer than these people have, but they've accomplished more in two years than we have in six. We have a lot to learn from them, and the alien tech they've collected has Carter practically doing cartwheels. They have a lot to offer."

"And the concerns about Daniel Jackson?"

"Sir, I doubt that they'll see it this way, but in my personal opinion, whoever is assigned to command the base could do a whole hell of a lot worse than reporting to Daniel."

"Are you sure about that, Colonel? It has been two years. Maybe he's not the same man you remember."

It was unlike Hammond to question a judgment call, which meant that this was serious. So Jack gave the question the attention it deserved, and really thought about it.

He thought about the man he remembered, all soft blue eyes and stubborn tilt of the chin, absent-minded with a queer clarity of thought, brilliant and abstract yet with a solid bedrock of principles that no amount of military pragmatism could shake. Jack remembered one of their last missions before Daniel disappeared, to Euronda, where Daniel had been the only one not blinded by the lure of weapons and technology. He'd been the only one to try and find out what was really going on, even after Jack had slapped him down publicly- probably even humiliated him. He'd cared more about the people involved than what they could get out of the deal, and he always had. That was just the kind of guy Daniel was.

But had he changed? He thought about the respect he'd seen in the eyes of everyone around- the sharp-edged Queen Hippolyta, her less showy but no less canny sister, the calmly competent Sarth Attyn, Teal's friend Lor'nac, even the fiery little ball-buster, Myrine. Skaara had respected Daniel long before Daniel was governing an alien government, even before Daniel had wed and lost his sister. Daniel was the leader of a democratic government for a society built from dozens of alien worlds. He was allied with other worlds; he even had a mining treaty with an Unas home world. When they'd gotten there this morning, Daniel had been earnestly helping out the Unas leader, had spoken to him with respect and received the same in return, despite the fact that anyone but Daniel wouldn't have stopped long enough to realize they even had a language, much less learned it and made _treaties_ with them. Daniel's one and only love was an alien woman that seemed to think the sun rose and set on him, who traveled the galaxy and always came home to him and kissed him like it mattered.

The whole damn world was in love with him, Jack thought. No, he hadn't changed at all.

"Yes, sir," Jack said. "I'm absolutely sure."

Hammond sighed. "Alright, Colonel. I'll talk fly out to Washington tonight. If all goes well, we'll be able to open peace talks tomorrow morning at the earliest. Keep in mind that if we're going to be talking to anyone it's going to be Queen Hippolyta. I don't want to step on any toes around here if I don't have to."

Jack thought about the Queen with a smile of amusement. "I'm sure they'll live to regret that, sir," he said. "She's much smarter than they are."

Hammond grinned- Jack could hear it in his voice. "I'm sure. Next check-in is at oh-eight-hundred tomorrow, Colonel."

"Acknowledged. O'Neill out."

* * *

After he was finished reporting in, he ringed back to the city. He hadn't gotten quite used to the modified system they'd installed, and so he ended up in the middle of Daniel's office instead of the transport room. The sight of Daniel's empty throne-chair left a bitter taste in his mouth, so he didn't bother to linger, just left the room as quickly as he could, only to stop in the hallway when he realized that he had no idea where he was supposed to go. He was pretty sure that they'd been assigned quarters somewhere, but he had no idea where to even _start_ looking.

Luckily, he didn't have to stand there too long before Commander Attyn came along and found him. "The last door on the left down that hall," Attyn said, pointing, when Jack asked him with uncharacteristic politeness where his room was. "Go up the steps to the roof."

Jack arched an eyebrow at him. "I'm sleeping on the roof?"

Attyn smiled, the expression transforming his lean, harsh face. "No, but it is where Daniel is, and you two have some catching up to do, I think."

Daniel, Jack thought. What a great idea. And then common sense poked its ugly grinning mug back in, and he said, "I don't want to bother him."

"Oh no, Colonel," Attyn said. "He would very much want to be bothered by you."

Jack decided not to read too much into that. It was safer that way. "And the way to my room?" he asked.

"Daniel will show you," Attyn said firmly, and he looked so entirely un-budge-able that Jack resigned himself to following the man's directions, and went up to the roof to find Daniel.

He found him easily enough; the roof was as huge as the city and was variegated in height where some parts had extra-high ceilings, but Attyn obviously knew his friend's habits pretty well because the doorway Jack used took him out onto a wide, flat section where Daniel was easy to spot, sitting cross-legged near the edge. Jack walked carefully across the slightly slick metal surface, making enough noise that he wouldn't startle Daniel into falling off, or anything.

"I could have sworn I told you that I didn't want-" Daniel started, and then stopped when he saw Jack. "Oh, it's you," he said.

"Disappointed?" Jack joked weakly. Then he said, "Attyn told me you were here."

"That makes sense," Daniel said, nodding. "Sarth usually knows where I am. It's a little uncanny, actually."

"Right," Jack said. Then he asked, "You didn't want what?"

"Hmm? Oh, I thought you were Xyn, I'd told her that I wanted to come up here and think by myself for a while. She's the only other one who ever comes up here; I assumed that that's who you were."

"Nope, just little old me," Jack said. Then, casually, as if he didn't care one way or another- "You want me to go?"

"No!" Daniel burst out, then ducked his chin a little. It was hard to tell in the moonlight, but Jack knew from experience and Daniel's posture that he was blushing. "Um, no, it's okay. Come on over here, have a seat," he said, waving a hand at the spot next to him, and Jack complied with alacrity.

"So," Jack said once he'd sat down, and the silence started stretching out between them. "Come here often?"

"Yes, actually," Daniel said. "The view is fantastic- you can see almost all of Themiscyra from here, and Lake Maeotis is fascinating to watch; it never looks the same twice."

Jack stared at the rippling surface of the lake. "Pretty," he said agreeably.

"Isn't it?" Daniel enthused. "Anyway, I like being able to see everything at once, from up here. It's… reassuring."

Now _that_ was something Jack could identify with. Knowing where his team was at all times was definitely reassuring. And Daniel had an entire world to worry about, though he didn't have to worry about it all on his own. Which was probably a relief, since the city alone was huge.

"Look," Daniel said, suddenly grabbing his hand. Jack's heart beat faster, but Daniel just used his hand to point, tracing out different sections of the city in the distance as he talked. "Themiscrya's a horseshoe shape, see? We've got our backs against the cliff, and all the really important stuff- offices, armories, barracks, that sort of thing- are all in this section. The front doors open right onto the lake, no beaches, so it's practically impossible to get in here without going through the rest of the city."

"Good planning," Jack said.

"Thanks; it was Sarth's idea. Everyone lived in Paphos until we came, so we could set things up how we liked. And see, there, and there-" Daniel pointed to the three-story buildings right off the main base, "-those are the boarding houses, run by a couple particularly terrifying former Antianeiran soldiers. They're for visiting dignitaries, and temp quarters for messengers or new refugees who haven't been processed and assigned homes in Sinope yet."

"Sounds like a whole lot of work and no play," Jack said. "Some capitol city you've got."

Daniel snorted. "Oh please, have you met _anyone_ around here? Of course there's some fun spots. The real vice pits are in Paphos, but I'd recommend at least two bodyguards before you go down there; some of those women will roll you in a second if you don't have enough guards to make it not worth their while. Yes, even you, Jack. Since Themiscyra's the congregation spot for all of Pontus, _and_ we get a bunch of scared and traumatized refugees coming in every month or two, Lyta makes sure that the dens don't get out of hand, but that doesn't stop the madams from moving in and taking all they can get. Skaara knows where they all are, _of course,_ he can probably show you if you want-" Daniel paused, stumbled over his words. "That is, if you're staying- I didn't mean to-"

Jack interrupted him before he could trip any further over his own tongue. "What about the hangar, huh? Where is it?" Truth be told, he didn't want to think about it any more than Daniel. He was here to secure an alliance, and then he and his team would go back to exploring new worlds and some jarhead would be sent in to work with Daniel Jackson and his friends. Jack would see him if there was an emergency, or if Hammond let him take his leave offworld- if Daniel would want him even then- and it was just easier to pretend that _now_ was all they had, because in reality, it kinda was.

"Oh," Daniel said, relieved by the change of subject. "It's in the mountain, actually. Whoever built this city obviously had their own aircraft- they'd pretty much have to, at this level of technology- but anyway, they built the hangar back into the cliffs. There's an opening up at the top, looks like bare rock until the door is activated. The former occupants took almost all of their tech with them when they left-"

"Except for the shields," Jack interrupted.

"-right, except for the shields, and the hangar doors. I don't know how they made it, and I have no idea how they hid it so well, but it's really impressive."

"Cool," Jack said. Another thing for Carter to go ga-ga over. There was a long silence, and then, for lack of anything better, he said, "I missed the sunset. This place face west?"

"Actually, the sun sets in the south, here," Daniel said. "Or as close to south as the poles ever get, on an alien planet. But yes, we're facing south, and we have two moons- did you know that?- and one of them travels roughly the same path as the sun, so the sunsets are pretty spectacular. Another reason I like this view. The only problem is that the south wind can get pretty strong, since it comes off the ocean."

"It's definitely windy out here," Jack agreed. In fact, he was starting to feel the chill a little, even in his uniform; he didn't know why Daniel wasn't shivering in his sleeveless tunic.

"I know, the weather around here is a little insane," Daniel said. "Right now it's summer, and it's pretty hot down in the lowland where the Stargate is."

"Noticed that," Jack said.

"Yes, well. Up here near the lake we're higher up. The plain where Sinope is located is about sixty miles that way-" Daniel jerked his thumb over his shoulder, at the cliffs that were looming behind them, "-and it's really cold up there at night, even in summer. A lot of the refugees we get are from desert worlds and aren't doing so well with the temperatures. We've been thinking about establishing a second city further down, where it's warmer, but most of the rest of the island is solid jungle, and we're all a little leery of clearing as much as would be needed to build a decent-sized city."

Jack didn't say anything. It was pretty impressive, listening to Daniel talk like this, about refugees and establishing cities, in the same easy tone he used to use discussing ancient artifacts.

"Anyway," Daniel said, "that's neither here nor there."

"Then what is?" Jack asked, when Daniel trailed off.

"What?"

"Here or there. You had a point, I'm guessing?"

Daniel blinked at him, his eyes huge behind his glasses. "I don't remember."

So, Jack thought. Minister Jackson wasn't that different from Doctor Jackson, after all. Good to know.

"Oh!" Daniel said. "Okay, it probably wasn't what I was talking about, but I did mean to ask you. Who'd you get for your social scientist, after I disappeared?"

"No one, at first," Jack said. "We figured you'd be back, one way or another. After a couple weeks, you were officially listed as MIA and Hammond made me start looking for a replacement."

"And?" Daniel prompted patiently.

"Went through a lot of geeks," Jack said. "Some military, some not. Most of them pretty much got us shot, or shot at, or speared. One of 'em didn't even make it out of the gate room. Hammond finally put his foot down, said if I couldn't find someone suitable, he was assigning someone who'd keep the Russians happy."

"So who'd you find?"

"I didn't," Jack said. "Hammond assigned Dr. Vasil'eva as our fourth."

"Raisa," Daniel said, with a surprised smile. "I know her. She's very good."

"Yeah," Jack said reluctantly. "She is." Didn't mean he had to like her.

Daniel knew him well enough to see through that; his lips quirked in a suppressed smile. "I can't help but notice that she's not here."

"We were all on leave when Skaara's message came through," Jack said. "She took hers at one of the offworld digs. Since it was Skaara, Hammond figured that she probably was needed more where she was and let us go on our own."

"And that had nothing to do with you, of course," Daniel said.

"Of course," Jack said.

Silence again. Jack stared at the moonlight reflecting and fragmenting on the restless surface of the lake; beside him, Daniel did the same. It was a Moment, and a good one. It was also the best chance Jack figured he was going to have to bring up what he wanted to ask.

"So," he said leadingly. "You and Xyn?"

"Hmm, yes," Daniel said, his attention still on the view. "She's… honestly, she's the most amazing person, Jack. I don't know what I'd do without her."

Jack's heart sank a little. Not that he hadn't expected it, not that it hadn't been obvious, but still, not exactly what he wanted to hear. "So I guess you two got pretty _close_ when she saved your ass back on her planet," Jack said. He couldn't quite resist the bitter emphasis on "close," but he figured Daniel wouldn't notice. He looked mighty absorbed in that lake.

"Yes, we're-" Daniel stopped. Slowly swiveled his head until he faced Jack. Stared.

"No," he said, "no, Jack, we're not _that_ kind of close." He bit his lip, obviously fighting back laughter. "Jack, she's- she's an _alien,_ Jack."

"Hasn't stopped you before," Jack said meanly. Daniel winced and glared at him; Jack just stared back. Okay, low blow, but still a valid point.

"That's _different_," Daniel snapped, irritated now. At least he wasn't snickering. "Sha're and her people were human, just transplanted to another planet by Ra. Xyn is an _alien_, not just from a different planet but from a different species."

"She looks human enough," Jack muttered. She'd been prancing around in a damn minidress all day. Yeah, he'd noticed, so what?

"Well, she's not. She's a _plant,_ Jack, or rather an incredibly advanced approximation of one. She doesn't have the necessary corresponding sexual organs for us to be that kind of _close._"

"Oh, right," Jack said, trying to act like he wasn't feeling incredibly stupid. But in his defense, he had seen Daniel- wait. "I saw you kissing!" Jack said. "When she first got here. That was one hell of a hello, Daniel."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "It was a kiss, Jack, not public sex," he said. "It's hardly my idea of fun to get off with someone who doesn't even have the physical design to enjoy it."

"So it was just a friendly greeting," Jack said suspiciously.

"Yes! Well, not _just,_ no," Daniel said, his inherent honesty forcing him to give a more precise answer.

"Daniel?"

"I mentioned how the Tsh'nra are telepathic, right?" Daniel said. "The process of reading a mind; they call it Tasting."

"And you're her Tasted," Jack said, remembering. "You said Attyn was, too, and I don't see her going for his lips."

"Well for one he's married," Daniel said, "and for another she never touched his mind. Incidentally I said I _was_ her Tasted; what we share now is much more than Tsh'ra and subject."

"Yeah, noticed that," Jack said. "What does that have to do with kissing?"

"_I'm getting there,"_ Daniel said, frustrated. "Tasting is a one-way process, the Tsh'nra is the reader and the Tasted is read, a form of recon, I suppose you could say." Well gee thanks, Danny, so happy when you're speaking my language for a change. "I… convinced her to try something deeper, a two-way bond. It's how I convinced her to help us escape. When we got free, we made the choice to make that bond permanent one. Deeper mental connections are shared through a personal physical connection- they touch foreheads on her planet, but she saw in my mind that kissing is how people show love and affection on mine, and so that's what we do instead. It's not sex, Jack, it's connecting, on a deeper level than you could possibly understand."

Every time Daniel said that, Jack wanted to say, _I'm not stupid, Daniel,_ but he knew that that wasn't what Daniel was trying to suggest. He didn't mean to sound condescending, it wasn't even how he felt, but that's how it sounded. Jack should be used to it, by now. On the other hand, he'd had two years to get un-used to it. Maybe it shouldn't be that surprising that it was bugging the crap out of him, all over again.

"So you're what, buddies?" Jack asked. "Man, I wish I had friends like that."

Daniel sighed, a short, frustrated noise. "It's not that simple, Jack," he said. "Are we friends? Yes. Are we lovers? Not in the physical sense, no. She's not my wife; I'm not her husband. We're partners, and more than that, well, I suppose if I had to pick the closest expression it would be _soulmates._ What we share… God, I can't even describe it, not in any of the languages I know."

"How many is that again?" Jack asked, trying to change the subject. He was sorry he'd asked, now. He didn't need to hear about Daniel's perfect relationship.

"Twenty-some conversationally, about six fluently," Daniel said. "Jack, why are you so angry? You're the one who asked."

Damn it, Daniel always could see through his bullshit when he was actually paying attention. "Yeah, I did, sorry." He sighed, rubbed the back of his neck. "I just…" he started, and then stopped. No, he couldn't do it. It was pointless, and stupid, and would expose himself in all sorts of interesting ways for _no reason at all._ So instead he just said, "It sounds like you're happy. I'm glad."

"I'm glad you're glad," Daniel said cautiously. "You sound glad."

"Well, I am glad," Jack said, and decided that _now_ would be a good time to make his escape, thanks. "Anyway. Looks like I've got to head to bed. See you tomorrow, Daniel," he said, and got in one fast squeeze of Daniel's shoulder before getting the hell out of there.

It was only when he'd gone down the steps and back into the main hallway that he realized he hadn't asked Daniel where he was staying. He had no idea where he was supposed to go.

Crap.

* * *

Daniel was more confused than ever in the wake of his conversation with Jack and Jack's subsequent disappearance. They'd been doing fine earlier; Jack had sat next to him quite amicably and actually seemed interested when he rambled about the city, but then Jack had brought up Xyn and it had all gone straight to hell. He knew that Jack never seemed to approve of alien woman, especially when they were attached to Daniel, and he knew that Xyn herself had been going out of her way to push that disapproval straight into outright dislike, but he hadn't know that things were that bad. And then there was Jack's almost explanation. "I just…" Just _what,_ Jack? he wanted to yell at the empty spot of roof where Jack had been sitting, but Jack was gone and apparently didn't want to talk about it anyway, judging by the speed of his departure. Daniel turned grumpily back to the lake and tried to let the familiar view shut his brain down a little.

"The lake will never be anything but a lake, Daniel, no matter how hard you stare."

Daniel didn't spin around like he had when he'd heard Jack come up behind him. He felt like he was all startled-out for the night, that he could feel no more surprise. The teasing ripples of the lake water cooled and soothed his overheated mind, leaving him feeling peaceful and empty. "I don't need it to be anything but the lake, Sarth," he said. "I never have."

"No, it's true, you don't ask for much," his friend said, coming to stand beside him. "But then, somehow you end up with more than any sane man _would_ ask for, so that isn't entirely a surprise."

Daniel laughed and let his head fall back. "It's funny, you know," he said.

"What is?" Sarth asked, when he didn't continue.

"Jack," Daniel said. "I used to understand him. Oh, not completely, no one understands him completely, but he used to make sense. Now? Notsomuch."

Silence hung companionably between them, peaceful on Daniel's part, measuring on Sarth's. Daniel just sat there, leaning back on his hands, staring up at the starry sky. He loved the watch the night sky, though he'd never even so much as thought about buying a telescope. The stars were a beautiful mystery, one he'd never had the desire to unravel, and now a telescope would only give him a closer view at solar systems he'd seen with his own eyes, foreign soils he'd walked upon and wondered over and lost blood, sweat, and tears to. He didn't need the reminder. He just wanted to see the beauty.

Everyone saw something different in those bright, twinkling lights, Daniel thought. Xyn, like many plants, furled her leaves and slept through the night, rising with the sun. To her, the stars were just an expanse waiting to be traveled, not a sight to be admired in their own right. She couldn't fathom his desire to stay here in the dark and cold just to see distant stars she'd flown past, though when she touched the memories in his mind with her usual inquisitive grace, there was a sense of wonder, as if perhaps, through his eyes, she could understand a little of the awe they inspired in those who would never see the things she did.

Lyta had spent quite a few nights up here with him, back when he first arrived and she'd been courting him in more ways than one, holding his hand in hers to trace the constellations, telling him all the stories behind their names. To her they were a record of her people, their history and belief, as tangible as a parchment scroll in her hands. Eventually they cooled to the respect and affection they enjoyed now, and she didn't come up here to tell him stories anymore. He didn't mind. He rather enjoyed the solitude.

Sarth never told him what he saw when he looked up at night. Daniel never asked. He trusted Sarth with his life, his soul if necessary, but it wasn't the sort of thing they talked about. It was possible he saw nothing but a scattering of lights. If ever there was a man with his feet on the ground, Daniel thought with sudden affection, it was Sarth Attyn.

And Jack. What about Jack? Once upon a time there had been three important people in his life, Jack, Sam, and Teal'c, his team. Then he'd come to Pontus and made his life here, and while it wasn't true that he never looked back, he certainly didn't regret his choice. And yet, despite his new circle of three, friends and loves that bound him tighter than any chains of team spirit, he still hadn't been able to forget about Jack. His fourth, or rather his first. Irreverent, irrepressible, heroic and honorable, a walking contradiction and so damned handsome Daniel used to wonder how he could ever look away. And he hadn't changed. Not much. A little older, a little more bitter, a little more worn-down, but still Jack, in all the ways that counted.

And what would Jack see in the night sky? He had a telescope at his house, Daniel knew, and he used it. They weren't just pretty lights to him. They meant something. He would never see the history and myth, not like Lyta, and though he'd deny it to his dying day, he was ultimately too fanciful to see it like Sam did, science and cold, hard fact. Maybe he saw the universe waiting to be explored like Xyn- they were more alike than either would like to admit, both adventurers to the bone. Maybe he looked up and saw deaths waiting to happen- he'd known too many, more than any one man should have to bear.

But maybe, Daniel thought, he saw the beauty, too. Maybe he and Jack had something in common after all.

It was an unexpectedly sweet thought, and one he savored until the silence was abruptly broken by Sarth's voice. "He's scared, you know. Your Jack."

The cadence of his speech was slow, thoughtful, his usual conversational tones, and it took Daniel a long moment to realize that Sarth was finally answering Daniel's comment. He must have been thinking about it as the silent moments ticked by, while Daniel was pondering the stars.

"He's not my Jack," Daniel said. Though that didn't stop him from wishing, sometimes. "He's not anybody's Jack."

"He'd like to be," Sarth said. "He's a man that doesn't know what to do unless he knows where he belongs in the world. Right now, I'd say he doesn't know a damn thing, and it scares him."

"Nothing scares Jack," Daniel said, though he knew it was a lie. Plenty of things scared Jack. One of things that scared Daniel was the though of becoming one of those things, but he didn't need Sarth to tell him that he'd already done so.

"It's like hunting a lirruk," Sarth said. "Don't make noise, and don't pursue. If you stand still enough, he'll come to you."

"I'm not _hunting_ Jack," Daniel protested.

Sarth didn't say anything for a long moment. "Perhaps not," he said. "But I think he'll come to you, nonetheless."

Daniel kept silent, not knowing what to say to that. Sarth smiled at him and squeezed his shoulder, and unconscious mimicry of the man on both their minds. "I'm going to bed," he said. "I suggest you do the same, before you freeze your nose off and get your lady in a scold."

"Which one?" Daniel asked, wrinkling said nose.

"Either," Sarth said with a laugh, and headed off across the roof. Daniel let him go, calling out only as he opened the door that led back into the city.

"Sarth!" he said.

The shadow that was all he could make out of his friend paused and turned. "Yes?" Sarth called back.

"Thanks," Daniel said, and faintly, saw Sarth's salute, palm flat against his heart in the honor of his home world. Daniel stood and returned it, and he smiled as he watched his friend turn and vanish down the stairwell.

He stood there for another long moment, just now feeling the chill that had long ago seeped into his bones. He wasn't sure he'd learned anything here, not really. But he'd definitely been given some food for thought.

He gave one last, longing look towards the peace of the lake, letting its silvery cool fill his head. Then he turned, and went down to his city, and his warm bed, and the other love of his life.


End file.
